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ARADIA
HE GOSPEL
CHARLk.
T.ELAND
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kl m* ■W9r
mnptl of tt)e mttc^eiB!
of atalp
Printed by Ballantvnb, Hanson 6* Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
PREFACE
If the reader has ever met with the works of the
learned folk-lorist G, Pitr£, or the articles con-
tributed by " Lady Vere de Vere " to the Italian
Rivisla, or that of ]. H. ANDREWS to Folk-
Lore} he will be aware that there are in Italy
great numbers of strege, fortune - tellers or
witches, who divine by cards, perform strange
ceremonies in which spirits are supposed to be
invoked, make and sell amulets, and, in fact,
comport themselves generally as their reputed
kind are wont to do, be they Black Voodoos in
America or sorceresses anywhere.
But the Italian Strega or sorceress is in certain
respects a different character from these. In
most cases she comes of a family in which her
calling or art has been practised for many genera-
tions. I have no doubt that there are instances
in which the ancestry remounts to mediaeval,
Roman, or it may be Etruscan times. The result
has naturally been the accumulation in such
families of much tradition. But in Northern
• March, 1S97: "Neapolitan Witchcraft."
Italy, as its literature indicates, though there has
been some slight gathering of fairy tales and
popular superstitions by scholars, there has never
existed the least interest as regarded the strange
lore of the witches, nor any suspicion that it
embraced an incredible quantity of old Roman
minor myths and legends, such as OviD has
recorded, but of which much escaped him and
all other Latin writers.'
This ignorance was greatly aided by the wizards
and witches themselves, in making a profound
secret of all their traditions, urged thereto by
fear of the priests. In fact, the latter all uncon*
sciously actually contributed immensely to the
preservation of such lore, since the charm of the
forbidden is very great, and witchcraft, like the
truffle, grows best and has its raciest flavour when
most deeply hidden. However this may be, both
priest and wizard are vanishing now with incre-
dible rapidity — it has even struck a French writer
that a Franciscan in a railway carriage is a strange
' Thus we msy imagine what the case would huve been as re-
eards German fairy-tales if nothing had survived to a future day
except the colleclions of Grimm and Mus/gus. The world would
fall into the belief that these constituted all the works of the kind
which had ever existed, when, in fact, theyfoini only a small part of
the whole. And folklore was unknown to classic authors: there is
really no evidence in any ancient Latin writer that he gathered
traditions and the like among the vulgar, as men collect at present.
Theyall made books entirely out of books — there being still "a few
left of the same sort " of lilctsti.
PREFACE
anomaly — and a few more years of newspapers
and bicycles (Heaven knows what it will be when
flying-machines appear !) will probably cause an
evanishment of all.
However, they die slowly, and even yet there
are old people in the Romagna of the North who
know the Etruscan names of the Twelve Gods,
and invocations to Bacchus, Jupiter, and Venus,
Mercury, and the Lares or ancestral spirits, and
in the cities are women who prepare strange
amulets, over which they mutter spells, all known
in the old Roman time, and who can astonish
even the learned by their legends of Latin gods,
mingled with lore which may be found in Cato
or Theocritus. With one of these I became in-
timately acquainted in 1886, and have ever since
employed her specially to collect among her
sisters of the hidden spell in many places all the
traditions of the olden time known to them. It
is true that I have drawn from other sources, but
this woman by long practice has perfectly learned
what few understand, or just what 1 want, and
how to extract it from those of her kind.
Among other strange relics, she succeeded, after
many years, in obtaining the following "Gospel,"
which I have in her handwriting. A full account
of its nature with many details will be found in
an Appendix. I do not know definitely whether
my informant derived a part of these traditions
from written sources or oral narration, but be-
lieve it was chiefly the latter. However, there are
a few wizards who copy or preserve documents
relative to their art. I have not seen my collector
since the "Gospel" was sent to me. 1 hope at
some future time fo be better informed.
For brief explanation 1 may say that witch-
craft is known to its votaries as la vecckia religione,
or the old religion, of which Diana is the God-
dess, her daughter Aradia (or Herodias) the
female Messiah, and that this little work sets
forth how the latter was born, came down to
earth, established witches and witchcraft, and
then returned to heaven. With it are given the
ceremonies and invocations or incantations to
be addressed to Diana and Aradia, the exorcism
of Cain, and the spells of the holy-stone, rue, and
verbena, constituting, as the text declares, the
regular church-service, so to speak, which is to
be chanted or pronounced at the witch-meetings.
There are also included the very curious incanta-
tions or benedictions of the honey, meal, and salt,
or cakes of the witch-supper, which is curiously
classical, and evidently a relic of the Roman
Mysteries.
The work could have been extended ad in-
finitum by adding to it the ceremonies and
incantations which actually form a part of
the Scripture of Witchcraft, but as these are
PREFACE
nearly all — or at least in great number — to be
found in my works entitled Etruscatt'Rotnan
Remains and Legends of Florence, I have hesitated
to compile such a volume before ascertaining
whether there is a sufficiently large number of
the public who would buy such a work.
Since writing the foregoing I have met with
and read a very clever and entertaining work
entitled // Romanso dei Settimani, G. Cavagnari,
i88g, in which the author, in the form of a novel,
vividly depicts the manners, habits of thought,
and especially the nature of witchcraft, and the
many superstitions current among the peasants
in Lombardy. Unfortunately, notwithstanding
his extensive knowledge of the subject, it never
seems to have once occurred to the narrator that
these traditions were anything but noxious non-
sense or abominably un-Christian folly. That
there exist in them marvellous relics of ancient
mythology and valuable folklore, which is the
very cor cordium of history, is as uncared for by
him as it would be by a common Zoccolone or
tramping Franciscan. One would think it might
have been suspected by a man who knew that
a witch really endeavoured to kill seven people
as a ceremony or rite, in order to get the secret
of endless wealth, that such a sorceress must
have had a store of wondrous legends ; but of
all this there is no trace, and it is very evident
PREFACE
that nothing could be further from his mind than
that there was anything interesting from a higher
or more genial point of view in it all.
His book, in fine, belongs to the very great
number of those written on ghosts and super-
stition since the latter has fallen into discredit,
in which the authors indulge in much satirical
and very safe but cheap ridicule of what to them
is merely vulgar and false. Like Sir Charles
Coldstream, they have peeped into the crater
of Vesuvius after it had ceased to " erupt," and
found "nothing in it." But there was something
in it once ; and the man of science, which Sir
Charles was not, still finds a great deal in the
remains, and the antiquarian a Pompeii or a
Herculaneum — 'tis said there are still seven buried
cities to unearth. I have done what little (it is
really very little) I could, to disinter something
from the dead volcano of Italian sorcery.
If this be the manner in which Italian witch-
craft is treated by the most intelligent writer who
has depicted it, it will not be deemed remarkable
that there are few indeed who will care whether
there is a veritable Gospel of the Witches, ap-
parently of extreme antiquity, embodying the
belief in a strange counter-religion which has
held its own from pre-historic time to the present
day. "Witchcraft is all rubbish, or something
worse," said old writers, " and therefore all books
PREFACE
about it are nothing better." I sincerely trust,
however, that these pages may fall into the
hands of at least a few who will think better
of them.
I should, however, in justice to those who do
care to explore dark and bewildering paths, ex-
plain clearly that witch-lore is hidden with most
scrupulous care from all save a very few in Italy,
just as it is among the Chippeway Medas or the
Black Voodoo. In the novel to the life of /
Settimani an aspirant is represented as living
with a witch and acquiring or picking up with
pain, scrap by scrap, her spells and incantations,
giving years to it. So my friend the late M.
Dragomanoff told me how a certain man in
Hungary, having learned that he had collected
many spells (which were indeed subsequently
published in folklore journals), stole into the
scholar's room and surreptitiously copied them, so
that the next year when Dragomanoff returned,
he found the thief in full practice as a blooming
magician. Truly he had not got many incanta-
tions, only a dozen or so, but a very little will
go a great way in the business, and I venture
to say there is perhaps hardly a single witch in
Italy who knows as many as 1 have published,
mine having been assiduously collected from
many, far and wide. Everything of the kind
which is written is, moreover, often destroyed
xii PREFACE
•
with scrupulous care by priests or penitents,
or the vast number who have a superstitious
fear of even being in the same house with such
documents, so that I regard the rescue of the
Vangelo as something which is to say the least
remarkable.
CONTENTS
Preface
CHAPTER I
PAGE
V
How Diana gave Birth to Arabia (Herodias)
Of the sufferings of Mankind, and how Diana sent Aradia
on earth to relieve them by teaching resistance and
Sorcery — Poem addressed to Mankind — How to invoke
Diana or Aradia,
CHAPTER II
The Sabbat— Treguenda or Witch-Meeting . 8
How to consecrate the supper — Conjuration of the meal
and of Salt — Invocation to Cain — Conjuration of Diana
and to Aradia,
CHAPTER III
How Diana made the Stars and the Rain i8
CHAPTER IV
The Charm of the Stones consecrated to
Diana— The Incantation of Perforated
Stones— The Spell or Conjuration of the
Round Stone . 21
xiii
xiv CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER V
The Conjuration of the Lemon and Pins—In-
cantation TO Diana 29
CHAPTER VI
A Spell to Win Love 35
CHAPTER VII
To Find or Buy anything, or to have Good
Fortune thereby 38
CHAPTER VIII
To HAVE A Good Vintage and very Good Wine
BY THE Aid of Diana 44
CHAPTER IX
Tana and Endamone, or Diana and Endymion 51
CHAPTER X
Madonna Diana 61
A Legend of Cettardo, and how Diana appeared with
ten Bridesmaids to give away a Bride — Incantation
to Diana for a Wedding.
CHAPTER XI
The House of the Wind 65
Showing how Diana rescued a Lady from Death at the
Honse of the Wind in Volterra.
CONTENTS XV
PAGE
CHAPTER XII
Tana or Diana, the Moon-Goddess ... 72
CHAPTER XIII
Diana and the Children 78
CHAPTER XIV
The Goblin Messengers of Diana and Mer-
cury 86
CHAPTER XV
Laverna 89
APPENDIX loi
ARADIA
OR THE
GOSPEL OF THE WITCHES
CHAPTER I
HOW DIANA GAVE BIRTH TO ARADIA (HERODIAS)
"It is Diana! Lol
She rises crescented."
—Keats' Endyrnion.
" Make more bright
The Star Queen's crescent on her marriage night"
This is the Gospel (Vangeio) of the Witches :
Diana greatly loved her brother Lucifer, the god
of the Sun and of the Moon, the god of Light {Splendor)^
who was so proud of his beauty, and who for his
pride was driven from Paradise.
Diana had by her brother a daughter, to whom they
gave the name of Arabia \t,e. Herodias].
In those days there were on earth many rich and
many poor.
The rich made slaves of all the poor.
ARABIA
In those days were many slaves who were cruelly
treated; in every palace tortures, in every castle
prisoners.
Many slaves escaped. They fled to the country ;
thus they became thieves and evil folk. Instead of
sleeping by night, they plotted escape and robbed their
masters, and then slew them. So they dwelt in the
mountains and forests as robbers and assassins, alt to
avoid slavery.
Diana said one day to her daughter Aradia :
E vero che tu sei uno spirito,
Ma tu sei nata per essete ancora
Mortale, e tu devi andare
Sulla terra e fare da naaestra
A donne e a' uomini che a
Volenti di inparare la tua scuola
Che sara composta di stregonerie.
Non devi essere come la 5glia di Caino,
E della razza che sono divenuti
Scellerati infami a causa dei maltrattamenti.
Come Giudei e Zingari,
Tutti ladri e briganti,
Tu noD divieni. . . .
Tu sarai (sempre) la prima Strega,
La prima strega divenuta nel mondo,
Tu insegnerai 1' arte di avvelenare,
Di avvelenare (tutti) i signori,
Di farli morti nei loro palazzi,
fiOW DIANA GAVE BIRTH TO ARjSDIA 3
Di legare il spirito del oppressors,
E dove si trova uti conladino ricco e ayaro,
Insegnerai alle strege tue alunne,
Come rovinare il suo raccolto
Con tempesta, folgore e balen,
Con grandine e vento.
Quando un prete ti fara del male,
Del male coUe sue bene di' Zioni,
Tu le farai (sempre) un doppio male
Col mio nome, col nome di Diana,
Kegina delle strege. . . .
Quando i nobili e i preti vi diranno
Dovete credere nel Padre, Figlio,
E Maria, rispondete gli sempre,
" II vostro dio Padre e Maria
Sono tre diavoli. . . .
" II vero dio Padre non e il vostro—
II vostro dio — io sono venuta
Per distraggere la gente cattiva
£ la distruggero. . . .
"Voi altri poveri soffrite anche la fame,
E lavorato malo e molte volte ;
Soffrite anche la prigione ;
Mapero avete una anima,
Una anima piti buona, e nell' altra,
Neir altra mondo voi starete bene,
E gli altri male." . . .
Translation.
'Tis true indeed that thou a spirit art,
But thou wert born but to become again
A mortal ; thou must go to earth below
To be a teacher unto women and men
Who fain would study witchcraft in thy school
Yet [ike Cain's daughter thou shalt never he.
Nor like the race who have become at last
Wicked and infamous from suifering,
As are the Jews and wandering Zingari,
Who are all thieves and knaves ; like unto them
Ye shall not be. . . .
And thou shalt be the first of witches known ;
And thou shalt be the first of all i' the world ;
And thou shalt teach the art of poisoning,
Of poisoning those who are great lords of all ;
Yea, thou shalt make them die in their palaces ;
And thou shalt bind the oppressor's soul (with power) ;^
And when ye find a peasant who is rich.
Then ye shall teach the witch, your pupil, how
To ruin all his crops with tempests dire,
With lightning and with thunder (terrible),
And with the hail and wind. . . .
HOW DIANA GAVE^SitTH TO ARABIA j
And when a priest shall do you injury
By his benedictions, ye shall do to him
Double the harm, and do it in the name
Of me, Diana, Queen of witches all I
And when the priests or the nobility
Shall say to you that you should put your faith
In the Father, Son, and Mary, then reply :
" Your God, the Father, and Maria are
Three devils. . . .
" For the true God the Father is not yours ;
For I have come to sweep away the bad,
The men of evil, all will I destroy !
" Ve who are poor suffer with hunger keen,
And toil in wretchedness, and suffer too
Full oft imprisonroenl ; yet with it all
Ye have a soul, and for your sufferings
Ye shall be happy in the other world,
But ill the fate of all who do ye wrong ! "
Now when Aradia had been taught, taught to work
all witchcraft, how to destroy the evil race (of op-
pressors), she (imparted it to her pupils) and said unto
them :
Quando io saro partita da questo mondo,
Qualunque cosa che avrete bisogna,
Una volta al mese quando la luna
£ piena . . .
Dovete venire in luogo deserto.
ARADIA
In una selva tutte insieme,
E adorare lo spirito potente
Di mia madre Diana, e chi vom
Imparare la stregonerie,
Che non la sopra,
Mia madre le insegnera,
Tutte cose. . . .
Sarete liberi dalla schiavitd !
E cosi diverrete tutti liberi !
Pero uomini e donne
Sarete tutti nudi, per fino.
Che non sara morto 1' ultimo
Degli oppressor! e morto,
Farete il giuoco della moccola
Di Benevento, e farete poi
Una cena cosi :
Translation
When I shall have departed from this world,
Whenever ye have need of anything,
Once in the month, and when the moon is full.
Ye shall assemble in some desert place,
Or in a forest all together join
To adore the potent spirit of your queen,
My mother, great Diana. She who fain
Would learn al! sorcery yet has not won
Its deepest secrets, them my mother will
Teach her, in truth all things as yet unknown.
And ye shall all be freed from slavery.
And so ye Shall be free in everything ;
HOW DIANA GAVE BIRTH TO ARADIA y
And as the sign that ye are truly free,
Ye shall be naked in your rites^ both men
And women also : this shall last until
The last of your oppressors shall be dead ;
And ye shall make the game of Benevento,
Extinguishing the lights, and after that
Shall hold your supper thus :
CHAPTER 11
THE SABBAT, TREGUENDA OR WITCH-MEETING —
HOW TO CONSECRATE THE SUPPER.
Here follows the supper, of what it must consist, and
what shall be said and done to consecrate it to Diana.
You shall take meal and salt, honey and water, and
make this incantation :
Scongiurasione alia Farina.
Scongiuro te, o farina !
Che sei i! corpo nostro — senia di te
Non si potrebbe vivere — tu che
Prima di divenire la farina,
Sei stata sotto terra, dove tutti
Sono nascosti tutti in segreti,
Maccinata che siei a metterte al vento,
Tu spolveri per 1' aria e te ne fuggi
Portando con te i tuoi segreti !
Ma quando grano sarai in spighe,
In spige belle che le lucciole,
Vengeno a ferti lume perche tu
Possa crescere piii bella, altrimenti
Tu non polresd crescere a divenire bella,
Dunque anche tu appartieni
THE SABBAT
Alle Strege o alle Fate, perche
IjC lucciole appartengono
AIsol. . . .
Lucciola caporala,
Vieni corri e vieni a gara,
Metti la briglia a la cavalla !
Metti la briglia al figluol del t6 !
Vieni, corri e portala a m^ !
II figluol del i6 te lasciera andare
Pero voglio te pigliare,
Giache siei bella e lucente,
Ti voglio mettere sotto un bicchiere
£ guardarti coUa lente ;
Sotto un bicchiere tu staiai
Fino che tutti i segreti,
Di questo mondo e di quell' altro non n
Sapere e anche quelle del grano,
E della farina appena,
Questi segreti io saprb,
Lucciola mia libera ti lascierd
Quando i segreti della terra io saprtS
Tu sia benedetta ti diro !
Scongiurazione del Sale.
Scongiuro il sale suona mezza gibmo.
In punlo in mezza a un fiume,
Entro e qui miro 1' acqua,
L' acqua e al sol altro non penso,
Che a r acqua e al sol, alloro
La mia mente tutta e rivolta,
Altra pensier non ho desidero.
Saper la, verissima che tanto tempo 6
Che soffro, vorrei saper il mio avenir,
Se cattivo fosse, acqua e sol
Migliorate il destino mio !
7Sb Conjuration of Meal.
I conjure thee, O Meal !
Who art indeed our body, since without thee
We could not live, Ehou who (at first as seed)
Before becoming flower went in the earth,
Where all deep secrets hide, and then when ground
Didst dance like dust in the wind, and yet meanwhile
Didst bear with thee in flitting, secrets strange !
And yet erewhile, when thou wert in the ear,
Even as a (golden) glittering grain, even then
The fireflies came to cast on thee their light ^
And aid thy growth, because without their help
Thou couldsl not grow nor beautiful become ;
Therefore thou dost belong unto the race
Of witches or of fairies, and because
The fireflies do belong unto the sun. . , ,
Queen of the Fireflies ! hurry apace,-
Come to me now as if running a race,
Bridle the horse as you hear me now sing !
Bridle, O bridle the son of the king !
Come in a hurry and bring him to me !
The son of the king will ere long set thee free ;
' Theie is an evident association here of [he body of the firefly
which much resembles a grain of wheat) wilh the latter.
' The six lines followiDg are oilen heard as 3. nursery rhyme.
And because thou for ever art brilliant and fair,
Under a glass I will keep thee ; while there,
With a lens I will study thy secrets concealed,
Till all their bright mysteries are fully revealed.
Yea, all the wondrous lore perplexed
Of this life of our cross and of the next.
Thus to all mysteries I shall attain,
Yea, even to that at last of the grain ;
And when this at last I shall truly know.
Firefly, freely I'll let thee go !
When Earth's dark secrets are known to me.
My blessing at last I will give to thee !
Here follows the Conjuration of the Salt.
Conjuration of the Salt.
I do conjure thee, salt, lo ! here at noon,
Exactly in the middle of a stream
I take my place and see the water round,
Likewise the sun, and think of nothing else
White here besides the water and the sun :
For all my soul is turned in truth to them;
I do indeed desire no other thought,
I yearn to learn the very truth of truths.
For I have suffered long with the desire
To know my future or my coming fate.
If good or evil will prevail in it.
Water and sun, be gracious unto me !
Here follows the Conjuration of Cain.
AMDU
Scongiurasione di Caino.
Tuo Caino, tu non possa aver
Ne pace e ne bene fino che
Dal sole ' andaCe non sarai coi piedi
Correndo, le mani battendo,
E pregarlo per me che mi faccia sapere,
II mio destino, se cattiva fosse,
Allora me lo faccia cambiare,
Se questa grazia mi farete,
L' acqua al lo splendor del sol la guardero :
E tu Caino colla tua bocca mi diiai
II mio destino quale sark :
Se questa grazia o Caino non mi farai,
Pace e bene non avrai !
The Conjuration of Cain.
I conjure thee, Cain, as thou canst ne'er
Hare rest or peace until thou shall be freed
From the sun where thou art prisoned, and must go
Beating thy hands and running fast meanwhile : "^
I pray tbee let me know my destiny ;
And if 'tis evil, change its course for me !
If thou wilt grant tbis grace, I'll see it clear
In the water in the splendour of the sun ;
And thou, O Cain, shall tell by word of mouth
Whatever this my destiny is to be.
And unless thou grantest this,
May'st thou ne'er know peace or bliss !
' Probably a mistake for Lutta.
' This implies keeping himself warm, and is proof positive that
moon should here he lead for stat. According to another legend
Cain BuBers irom cold in the moon.
TTien shall follow the Conjuration of Diana.
Scongiurazione a Diana.
You shall make cakes of meal, wine, salt, and honey
in the shape of a (crescent or homed) moon, and then
put them to bake, and say :
Non cuoco ne il pane re il sale,
Non cuoco re il vino ne il miele,
Cuoco il corpo il sangue e 1' anima,
L' anima di Diana, che non possa
Avere ne la pace e ne bene,
Possa essere sempre in mezzo alle pene
Fino che la grazia non mi fari,
Che glielo chiesta egliela chiedo di cuore !
Se qaesla grazia, o Diana, mi farai,
La cena In tua lode in molti la faremo,
Mangiaremo, beveremo,
Ealleremo, salteremo,
Se questa grazia che ti ho chiesta,
Se questa grazia tu mi farai,
Nel tempo che balliamo,
H lume spengnerai,
Cosi al 1' amore
liberamente la faremo I
Conjuration of Diana.
I do not bake the bread, nor with it salt,
Nor do I cook the honey with the wine ;
I bake the body and the blood and soul,
The soul of (great) Diana, that she shall
ARABIA
Know neither rest nor peace, and ever be
In cruel suffering till she will grant
What I request, what I do most desire,
I beg it of her from my very heart !
And if the grace be granted, O Diana I
In honour of thee I will hold this feast.
Feast and drain the goblet deep.
We will dance and wildly leap,
And if thou grant'st the grace which I require,
Then when the dance is wildest, all the lamps
Shall be extinguished and we'll freely love !
And thus shall it be done : all shall sit down to the
supper all naked, men and women, and, the feast over,
they shall dance, sing, make music, and then love in the
darkness, with all the lights extinguished; for it is the
Spirit of Diana who extinguishes them, and so they will
dance and make music in her praise.
And it came to pass that Diana, after her daughter
had accomplished her mission or spent her time on
earth among the living (mortals), recalled her, and gave
her the power that when she had been invoked . . .
having done some good deed . . . she gave her the
power to gratify those who had conjured her by granting
her or him success in love:
To bless or curse vrith power friends or enemies [to
do good or evil]-
To converse with spirits.
To find hidden treasures in ancient ruins.
THE SABBAT 15
To conjure the spirits of priests who died leaving
treasures.
To understand the voice of the wind.
To change water into wine.
To divine with cards.
To know the secrets of the hand (palmistry).
To cure diseases.
To make those who ate ugly beautiful.
To tame wild beasts,
Whatever thing should be asked from the spirit of
Aradia, that should be granted unto those who merited
her favour.
And thus must they invoke her :
Thus do I seek Aradia ! Aradia ! Aradia 1 ' At
midnight, at midnight I go into a field, and with
me I bear water, wine, and salt, / bear water, wine,
and salt, and my talisman — my talisman, my talis-
man, and a red small bag which I ever hold in
my band — con dentro, con dentra, sale, with salt in it,
in it. With the water and wine I bless myself, / bkss
myself with devotion to implore a favour from Aradia,
Aradia.
Scongiurazione di Aradia,
Aradia, Aradia mia !
Tu che siei figlia del pii peggiore
Che si trova nel! Inferno,
Che dal Paradiso fu discacciata,
' This is a fonnula which is to be slowly recited, emphaaising tbc
E con una sorella, te ha creata.
Ma tua madie pentita del suo fallo,
A voluto di fare di te uno spirito,
Un spirito benign o,
E non maligno !
Aradia, Aradia ! Tanto ti prego
Per r amore che por ti ha tua madre,
E a 1' amor tuo che tanto I' ami,
Ti prego di farmi la grazia
La grazia che io ti chiedo
Se questa grazia mi fatei,
Tre cose mi farai vedere,
Serpe strisciare,
Lucciola volare,
E rana cantare
Se questa grazia non mi farai,
Desidero tu non possa avere,
Avere piii pace e ne bene,
E che da loQtano tu debba scomodarti.
E a me raccomodarti,
Che d obii . . . che tu possa torrnar
Presto al tuo destino.
Tki Invocation to Aradia.
Aradia 1 my Aradia !
Thou who art daughter unto him who was
Most evil of all spirits, who of old
Once reigned in hell when driven away from heaven.
Who by his sister did thy sire become,
But as thy mother did repent her fault.
THE SABBAT 17
And wished to mate thee to a spirit who
Should be benevolent,
And not malevolent !
Aradia, Aradia ! I implore
Thee by the love which she did bear for thee !
And by the love which I too feel for thee !
I pray thee grant the grace which I require !
And if this grace be granted, may there be
One of three signs distinctly clear to me :
The hiss of a serpent,
The light of a firefly.
The sound of a frog !
But if you do refuse this favour, then
May you in future know no peace nor joy.
And be obliged to seek me from afar.
Until you come to grant me my desire.
In haste, and then thou ma/st return again
Unto thy destiny. Therewith, Amen !
B
CHAPTER III
HOW DIANA MADE THE STARS AND THE RAIN
Diana was the first created before all creation ; in her
■were all things; out of herself, the first darkness, she
divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided.
Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half,
was the light.
And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful,
the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer,
she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing
to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow
it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire
This desire was the Dawn.
But Lucifer, the light, fled from her, and would not
yield to her wishes ; he was the light which flies into the
most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies
before the cat.
Then Diana went to the fathers of the Beginning, to
the mothers, the spirits who were before the first spirit,
and lamented unto them that she could not prevail with
Lucifer. And they praised her for her courage; they
told her that to rise she must fall ; to become the chief
of goddesses she must become a mortal.
And in the ages, in the course of time, when the world
was made, Diana went on earth, as did Lucifer, who
[A MADE THE STARS
had fallen, and Diana taught magic and sorcery, whence
came witches and fairies and goblins — all that is like
man, yet not mortal
And it came thus that Diana took the form of a cat.
Her brother had a cat whom he loved beyond all
creatures, and it slept every night on his bed, a cat
beautiful beyond all other creatures, a fairy : he did not
know it.
Diana prevailed with the cat to change forms with
her; so she lay with her brother, and in the darkness
assumed her own form, and so by Lucifer became the
mother of Aradia. But when in the morning he found
that he lay by bis sister, and that light had been con-
quered by darkness, Lucifer was extremely angry; but
Diana sang to him a spefl, a song of power, and he was
silent, the song of the night which soothes to sleep ; he
could say nothing. So Diana with her wiles of witch-
craft so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This
was Che first fascination ; she hummed the song, it was as
the buzzing of bees {or a top spinning round), a spinning-
wheel spinning life. She spun the lives of all men ; all
things were spun from the wheel of Diana. Lucifer
turned the wheel.
Diana was not known to the witches and spirits,
the fjdries and elves who dwell in desert place, the
goblins, as their mother ; she hid herself in humility and
was a mortal, but by her will she rose again above
all. She had such passion for witchcraft, and became
so powerful therein, that her greatness could not be
hidden.
And thus it came to pass one night, at the meeting of
20 ARADIA
all the sorceresses and fairies, she declared that she
would darken the heavens and turn all the stars into
mice.
All those who were present said—
^ If thou canst do such a strange thing, having risen
to such power, thou shalt be our queen."
Diana went into the street ^ she took the bladder of
an ox and a piece of witch-money, which has an edge like
a knife — ^with such money witches cut the earth from
men's foot-tracks — and she cut the earth, and with it and
many mice she filled the bladder, and blew into the
bladder till it burst.
And there came a great marvel, for the earth which
was in the bladder became the round heaven above, and
for three days there was a great rain ; the mice became
stars or rain. And having made the heaven and the
stars and the rain, Diana became Queen of the Witches ;
she was the cat who ruled the star-mice, the heaven and
the rain.
\
THE CHARM OF THE STONES 21
CHAPTER IV
THE CHARM OF THE STONES CONSECRATED
TO DIANA
To find a stone with a hole in it is a special sign of
the favour of Diana, He who does so shall take it in
his hand and repeat the following, having observed the
ceremony as enjoined : —
Scongiurazione della pietra bucata.
Una pietra bucata
U ho trovato ;
Ne ringrazio il destin,
E k) spirito che su questa via
Mi ha portata,
Che passa essere il mio bene,
E la mia buona fortuna !
Mi alzo la mattina al alba,
E a passegio me ne vo
Nelle valli, monti e campi,
La fortuna cercarvo
Della ruta e la verbena,
Quello so porta fortuna
32 ARABIA
Me lo tengo in senno chiuso
£ saperlo nessuno no le deve,
£ cosi cio che commendo,
" La verbena far ben per me !
Benedica quella strege !
Quella fata che mi segna ! "
Diana fu quella
Che mi venne la notte in sogno
E mi disse : " Se tu voir tener
Le cattive persone da te lontano,
Devi tenere sempre ruta con te,
Sempre ruta con te e verbena ! "
Diana, tu che siei la regina
Del cielo e della terra e dell* inferno,
E siei la prottetrice degli infelici,
Dei ladri, degli assassini, e anche
Di donne di mali afifari se hai conosciuto,
Che non sia stato V indole cattivo
Delle persone, tu Diana,
Diana li hai fatti tutti felici !
Una altra volta ti scongiuro
Che tu non abbia ne pace ne bene,
Tu possa essere sempre in mezzo alle pene^
Fino che la grazia che io ti chiedo
Non mi farai !
THE CHARM OF THE STONES
Invocation to the Holy-Stone}
I have found
A holy-stone upon the ground.
O Fate ! I thank thee for the happy find,
Also the spirit who upon this road
Hath given it to me ;
And may it prove to be for my true good
And my good fortune I
I rise in the morning by the earliest dawn,
And I go forth to walk through (pleasant) vales.
All in the mountains or the meadows fair,
Seeking for luck while onward still I roam,
Seeking for rue and vervain scented sweet,
Because they bring good fortune unto all.
I keep them safely guarded in my bosom,
That none may know it — 'tis a secret thing.
And sacred too, and thus I speak the spell :
" O vervain ! ever be a benefit,
And may thy blessing be upon the witch
Or on the fairy who did give thee to me ! "
It was Diana who did come to me,
All in the night in a dream, and said to me :
" If thou would'st keep all evil folk afar,
Then ever keep the vervain and the rue
Safely beside thee I "
I hole ii
. But such a slone is
IS really a claim to the
ARADIA
Great Diana I thou
Who art the queen of heaven and of earth,
And of the inferna! lands — yea, thou who art
Protectress of all men unfortunate,
Of thieves and murderers, and c
Who lead an evil life, and yet hast known
That their nature was not evil, thou, Diana,
Hast still conferred on them some joy in life.'
Or I may truly at another time
So conjure thee that thou shalt have no peace
Or happiness, for thou shalt ever be
In suffering until thou grantest that
Which 1 require in strictest faith from thee !
[Here we have again the threatening the deity,
just as in Eskimo or other Shamanism, which
represents the rudest primitive form of conjuring,
the spirits are menaced. A trace of this is to
be found among rude Roman Catholics. Thus
when St. Bruno, some years ago, at a town in
the Romagna, did not listen to the prayers of his
devotees for rain, they stuck his image in the
mud of the river, head downwards. A rain
speedily followed, and the saint was restored in
honour to his place in the church.]
' This 18 an obscoce pussags, but I believe thai I huve given it
at the poet meant oi feit it.
THE G^A%
The Spell or Conjuration of the Round Stoned
The finding a round stone, be it great or small, is a
good sign (e buono augurio), but it should never be given
away, because the receiver will then get the good luck,
and some disaster befall the giver.
On finding a round stone, raise the eyes to heaven,
and throw the stone up three times (catching it every
time), and say : —
SpiriCo del buono augurio !
Sei venuto in mio soccorso,
Credi ne avevo gran bisogno,
Spirito del foUetino rosso
Giacche sei venuto in mio soccorso,
Ti prego di non mi abbandonare !
Ti prego dentro questa pnlla d' intrare,
E nella mia tasca tu possa portare,
Cosi in qualunque mia bisogna,
In mio aiuto ti posso chiamare,
E di giorno e di notte,
Tu non mi possa abbandonare.
Se danari da qualchiino avanzerb,
E non mi vorra pagare,
Tu foUetino rosso me li farei dare !
Si questo di non darmeli,
Si in testera Cu vi anderai
E col tua Brie — brie !
' lis;
a palla.
26 ARABIA
Se dorme lo desterai,
Panni dal letto laceral,
Le farei tanta paura
Che allora di andare a dormire,
Andra alle bische a giuocare,
£ tu nunqua lo seguirai.
E tu col tuo Brii — briiy le dirai,
Chi non paga deliti
Avranno pene e guai.
Cosi il debitare il giorno appresso
O mi portera i danari,
O me li mandera ;
£ cosi, folletino rosso !
Mi farai felice in mia vita,
Perche in qualcunque mia bisogna,
Verrai in mio soccorso !
Se coUa mia amante saro' adirato,
Tu spirito del buono augurio mio !
Andrai la notte da lei
Per i capelli la prenderai,
E nel letto mio la porterai,
£ la mattina quando tutti gli spiriti
Vanno a riposare,
Tu prima di si' entrare
Nella tua palla si porterai
La mia bella nel suo letto,
Cosi te prego, folletino,
Di entrare in questa mia palla !
E dl ubbidire a tutti i mi(
Ed io ti porterd
Sempre nella tasca mia,
Che tu non mi vada via.
The Conjuratio.
Spirit of good omen,
Who art come to aid me.
Believe I had great need of thee.
Spirit of the Red Goblin,
Since thou hast come to aid me in my need,
I pray of thee do not abandon me :
I beg of thee to enter now this stone,
That in my pocket I may carry thee,
And so when anything is needed by me,
I can call unto thee : be what it may,
Do not abandon me by night or day.
Should I lend money unto any man
Who will not pay when due, I pray of thee.
Thou the Red Goblin, make him pay his debt !
And if he will not and is obstinate.
Go at him with thy cry of " Brie — brik I "
And if he sleeps, awake him with a twitch,
And pull the covering off and frighten him !
And follow him about where'er he goes.
So teach him with thy ceaseless "Brie — brie!"
That he who obligation e'er forgets
Shall he in trouble till he pays bis debts.
38 ARADIA
And so my debtor on the following day
Shall either bring the money which he owes,
Or send it promptly : so I pray of thee,
my Red Goblin, come unto my aid !
Or should I quarrel with her whom I love.
Then, spirit of good luck, I pray thee go
To her while sleeping — pull her by the hair,
And bear her through the night unto my bed !
And in the morning, when all spirits go
To their repose, do thou, ere thou retum'st
Into thy stone, carry her home again.
And leave her there asleep. Therefore, O Sprite !
1 beg thee in this pebble make thy home !
Obey in every way all I command.
So in my pocket thou shalt ever be.
And thou and I will ne'er part company !
r ■
CHAPTER V
THE CONJURATION OF THE LEMON AND PINS
Scongiuraziont al Limone appuntaio un Spilie.
Sacred to Diana.
A lemon stuck full of pins of different colours always
brings good fortune.
If you receive as a gift a lemon full of pins of divers
colours, without any black ones among them, it signi-
fies that your life will be perfectly happy and prosperous
and joyful.
But if some black pins are among them, you may
enjoy good fortune and health, yet mingled with troubles
which may be of small account [However, to lessen
their influence, you must perform the following cere-
mony, and pronounce this incantation, wherein all ^is
also described.^]
The Incantation to' Diana.
Al punto di mezza notte
Un limone ho raccolto,
Lo raccolto nel giardino
Ho raccolto un limone,
explain what follows abruplly.
il MS., but it is necessacj
ARADIA
Un arancio e un mandarino,
Cogliendo quests cose,
Cogliendo, io ho detto ;
Tu, o Regina del sole
Delia luna e delle stelle,
Ti chiamo in mio ajuto
E con quanta forza ho a te scongiuro
Che una grazia tu mi voglia fare,
Tre cose ho racolto nel giardino ;
Un limone, un arancio,
indarino ; una
Di queste cose per mia fortuna,
Vogtio tenere due
Di quest! oggetti di raano,
E quello chi dovra servirmi
Per la buona fortuna
Regina delle stelle :
Fa lo rimanere in mia mano !
At the instant when the midnight came,
I have picked a lemon in the garden,
I have picked a lemon, and with it
An orange and a (fragrant) mandarin.
Gathering with care these (precious) things,
And while gathering I said with care :
" Thou who art Queen of the sun and of the moon
And of the stars — lo ! here I call to thee !
And with what power I have I conjure thee
To grant to me the favour I implore !
Three things I've gathered in the garden here :
CONJURATION OF LEMON AND PINS
A lemon, orange, a.n(l a mandarin ;
I've gathered them to bring good luck to n
Two of them I do grasp here in my hand,
And that which is to serve me for my fate,
Queen of the stars !
Then make that fruit remain firm in my gr
Ns^T^^^B
[Something is here omitted in the MS, I con-
jecture that the two are tossed without seeing
them into the air, and if the lemon remains, the
ceremony proceeds as follows. This is evident,
since in it the incantation is confused with a
prose direction how to act.]
Saying this, one looks up at the sky, and I found the
lemon in one hand, and a voice said to me —
"Take many pins, and carefully stick them in the
lemon, pins of many colours ; and as thou wilt have
good luck, and if thou desirest to give the lemon to
any one or to a friend, thou shouldst stick in it many
pins of varied colours.
" But if thou wilt that evil befall any one, put in it
black pins.
"But for this thou must pronounce a different incan-
tation {thus) " : —
Dia Diana, a te scongiuro !
E te chiamo ad alta voce !
Che tu non abhia pace ne bene
Se non viene in mio aiuto
32 ARABIA
Domani al punto di mezzo giorno,
Ti aspetto a quello punto
Un bicchiere di vino portero,
£ una piccola lente al occhio
E dentro tredeci spilli,
Spilli neri vi metterb,
£ tu Diana tutti
I diavoli dell' inferno chiamerai,
E in compagnia del sole li manderai,
£ tutto il fuoco deir inferno preso di se
Lo porteranno, e daranno forza
Al sole di farmi questo vino boUire,
Perche questi spilli possano arroventire,
£ con questi il limone apunterd
Per non dare piti pace,
E ne bene alia persona
Che questo limone le presenterb !
Se questa grazia mi farete,
Un segnale mi darete,
Dentro tre giomi,
Una cosa voglio vedere,
O vento, o acqua, o grandine,
Se questo segnale non avr6,
Piu pace Diana non te darb,
Tanto di giorno che di notte,
Sempre ti tormenterb.
CONJURATION OF LEMON AND PINS 33
The Invocation to Diana.
Goddess Diana, I do conjure thee
And with uplifted voice to thee I call,
That thou shalt never have content or peace
Until thou comest to give me all thy aid.
Therefore to-morrow at the stroke of noon
I'll wait for thee, bearing a cup of wine,
Therewith a lens or a small burning-glass.'
And thirteen pins I'll put into the chann ;
Those which I put shall all indeed be black,
But Ihou, Diana, thou wilt place them all I
And thou shalt call for me the fiends from hell ;
Thou'll send them as companions of the Sun,
And all the fire infernal of itself
Those fiends shall bring, and bring with it the power
Unto the Sun to make this (red) wine boll,''
So that these pins by heat may be red-hot;
And with them I do fill the lemon here.
That unto her or him to whom 'tis given
Feace and prosperity shall be unknown.
If this grace I gain from thee
Give a sign, I pray, to me I
' This appeats from veiy early ages, as in Romin limes, to have
been regarded as gifted vrith magic properties, and was used ia
' That is, ZHana is invoked to send demons with the very life of
the lire of hell lo still more increase that of the sun to inlensily the
Ere the third day
Shall pass away,
Let me either hear or see
A roaring wind, a rattling rain,
Or hail a clattering on the plain ;
Till one of these three signs you show.
Peace, Diana, thou shalt not know.
Answer well the prayer I've sent thee,
Or day and night will I torment thee I
As the orange was the fruit of the Sun, so is
the lemon suggestive of the Moon or Diana, its
colour being of a lighter yellow. However, the
lemon specially chosen for the charm is always
a green one, because it " sets hard " and turns
black. It is not generally known that orange
and lemon peel, subjected to pressure and
combined with an adhesive may be made into
a hard substance which can be moulded or
used for many purposes. I have devoted a
chapter to this in an as yet unpublished work
entitled One Hundred Minor Arts. This was
suggested to me by the hardened lemon given
to me for a charm by a witch.
El *f6 wii^ tovE
CHAPTER vr
A SPELL TO WIN LOVE
When a wizard, a worshipper of Diana, one who wor-
ships the Moon, desires the love of a woman, he can
change her into the form of a dog, when she, forget-
ting who she is, and all things besides, will at once come
to his house, and there, when by him, take on again
her natural form and remain with him. And when it
is time for her to depart, she will again become a dog
and go home, where she will turn into a girl. And she
will remember nothing of what has taken place, or at
least but little or mere fragments, which will seem as a
confused dream. And she will take the form of a dog
because Diana has ever a dog by her side.
And this is the spell to be repeated by him who
would bring a love to his home.^
To day is Friday, and I wish to rise very early, not
having been able to sleep all night, having seen a very
beautiful girl, the daughter of a rich lord, whom I dare
not hope to win. Were she poor, I could gain her with
money ; but as she is rich, I have no hope to do so.
(Therefore will I conjure Diana to aid me.)
1 The beginning of this spell seems to be merely a proie intro-
duction eiplainiog the nature of the ceremony.
36 ARABIA
Scongiuraziane a Diana,
Diana, bella Diana !
Che tanto bella e buona siei,
£ tanto ti € piacere
Ti ho fatto,
Anche a te di fare al amore,
Dunque spero che anche in questa cosa
Tu mi voglia aiutare,
£ se tu vorrai
Tutto tu potrai,
Se questa gra2da mi vorrai fare :
Chiamerai tua figlia Aradia^
Al letto della bella fanciulla
La mandera Aradia^
La fanciulla in una canina convertira,
Alia camera mia la mandera,
Ma entrata in camera mia,
Non sara pili una canina,
Ma tomerk una bella fanciulla,
Bella cane era prima,
E cosi potr6 fare al amore
A mio piacimento,
Come a me piacera.
Quando mi saro divertito
A mi piacere dirb.
" Per volere della Fata Diana,
E di sua figlia Arabia,
Toma una canina
Come tu eri prima ! "
A SPELL TO WIN LOVE
Invocation to Diana.
Diana, beautiful Diana I
Who art indeed as good as beautiful,
By all the worship I have given thee,
And all the joy of love which thou hast known,
I do insplore thee aid me in my love !
What thou wilt 'tis true
Thou canst ever do :
And if the grace I seek thou'lt grant to me.
Then call, I pray, thy daughter Aradia,
And send her to the bedside of the girl,
And give that girl the likeness of a dog,
And make her then come to me in my room,
But when she once has entered it, I pray
That she may reassume her human form,
As beautiful as e'er she was before,
And may I then make love to her until
Our souls with joy are fully satisfied.
Then by the aid of the great Fairy Queen
And of her daughter, fair Aradia,
May she be turned into a dog again,
And then to human form as once before !
Thus it will come to pass that the girl as a dog will
return to her home unseen and unsuspected, for thus
will it be effected by Aradia; and the girl will think it
is all a dream, because she will have been enchanted
by Aradia.
CHAPTER VII
TO FIND OR BUY ANYTHING, OR TO HAVE
GOOD FORTUNE THEREBY
An Invocation or Imantation to Diana.
The man or woman who, when about to go forth into the
town, would fain be free from danger or risk of an acci-
dent : or to have good fortune in buying, as, for instance,
if a scholar hopes that he may find some rare old book
or manuscript for sale very cheaply, or if any one wishes
to buy anything very desirabie or to find bargains or
rarities. This scongiurasione serves for good health,
cheerfulness of heart, and absence of evil or the over-
coming enmity. These are words of gold unto the
believer.
The Invocation.
Siamo di Martedi e a buon ora
Mi voglio levare la buona fortuna,
Voglio andare e cercare,
E coll aiuto della bella Diana,
La voglio trovare prima d' andare,
Prima di sortir di casa
H malocchio mi levero
FINDING AND BUYING 3
Con tre gocciole d' olio,'
E te bella Diana io invoco
Che tu possa mandarmi via
II raalocchio da dosse a me
E mandala al mio piii nemtco !
Quando il malocchio
Mi saro levato
In mezza aila via lo gettero,
Se questa grazia mi farei
Diana bella,
Tutti i carapanelli
Di mia casa bene suonerai,
Allora contento di casa me ne andro,
Perche col tuo aiuto (saro) certo di trovare,
Buona fortuna, certo di trovare
Un bel libro anlico,
E a buon mercato
Me lo farai comprare !
Tu stessa dal proprietario
Cbe avra il libro
Te ne andrai tu stessa
Lo troverai e lo farei,
1 This refers Ca a small ceremony which I have seen perfbnned
ECoies of times, and have indeed Imd it perfaimed over me almost
as often, as an acl of courtesy common among wizards and witches.
It consists of making certain signs and crosses over a few drops of
oil and ihe head of the one blessed, accompanied by a short incan-
tntion. I have had the ceremony seriously commended oi prescribed
to me as a means of keeping in good health and prosperity.
Capitare in mano al padrone,
E le farai capitare
Id mano al padrone,
E le ferai entrare
Nel cervello che se di quel libro
Non si disfara la scorn unica,
Le portera, cosi questo dell' libro,
Verra disfarsi e col tuo aiuto,
Verra portato alia mia presenza,
E a poco me lo vendera,
Oppare se e* un mamscrifto,
Invece di libro per via lo gettera,
E col tuo aiuto verra in mia presenza,
E potrb acquistarlo
Senza nessuna spcsa ;
E cosi per me
Sara grande fortuna t
To Diana.
'Tis Tuesday now, and at an early hour
I fain would turn good fortune to myself,
Firstly at home and then when I go forth,
And with the aid of beautiful Diana
I pray for luck ere I do leave this house !
First with three drops of oil 1 do remove
All evi! influence, and I humbly pray,
O beautiful Diana, unto thee
That thou wilt take it all away from me,
And send it all to my worst enemy !
FINDING AND BUYING 41
When the evil fortune
Is taken from me,
I'll cast it out to the middle of the street :
And if thou wilt grant me this favour,
O beautiful Diana^
Every bell in my house shall merrily ring !
Then well contented
I will go forth to roam.
Because I shall be sure that with thy aid
I shall discover ere I return
Some fine and ancient books,
And at a moderate price.
And thou shalt find the man,
The one who owns the book,
And thou thyself wilt go
And put it in his mind.
Inspiring him to know
What 'tis that thou would'st find
And move him into doing
All that thou dost require.
Or if a manuscript
Written in ancient days,
Thou'lt gain it all the same.
It shall come in thy way,
And thus at little cost.
Thou shalt buy what thou wilt,
By great Diana! s aid.
The foregoing was obtained, after some delay,
in reply to a query as to what conjuration
would be required before going forth, to make
sure that one should find for sale some rare
book, or other object desired, at a very moderate
price. Therefore the invocation has been so
worded as to make it applicable to literary finds ;
but those who wish to buy anything whatever
on equally favourable terms, have but to vary
the request, retaining the introduction, in which
the magic virtue consists. I cannot, however,
resist the conviction that it is most applicable
to, and will succeed best with, researches for
objects of antiquity, scholarship, and art, and
it should accordingly be deeply impressed on
the memory of every bric-a-brac hunter and
bibliographer. It should be observed, and that
earnestly, that the prayer, far from being an-
swered, will turn to the contrary or misfortune,
unless the one who repeats ;it does so in fullest
faith, and this cannot be acquired by merely
saying to oneself, "I believe." For to acquire
real faith in anything requires long and serious
mental discipline, there being, in fact, no subject
which is so generally spoken of and so little
understood. Here, indeed, I am speaking seri-
ously, for the man who can train his faith to
actually believe in and cultivate or develop his
will can really work what the world by common
FINDING And buying 43
consent regards as miracles. A time will come
when this principle will form not only the basis
of all education, but also that of all moral and
social culture. I have, I trust, fully set it forth
in a work entitled " Have you a Strong Will ?
or how to Develop it or any other Faculty or
Attribute of the Mind, and render it Habitual,"
&c. London : GEORGE Redway.
The reader, however, who has devout faith,
can, as the witches declare, apply this spell
daily before going forth to procuring or
obtaining any kind of bargains at shops, to
picking up or discovering lost objects, or,
in fact, to finds of any kind. If he incline
to beauty in female form, he will meet with
bonnes fortunes; if a man of business, bar-
gains will be his. The botanist who repeats
it before going into the fields will probably
discover some new plant, and the astronomer by
night be almost certain to run against a brand-
new planet, or at least an asteroid. It should
be repeated before going to the races, to visit
friends, places of amusement, to buy or sell, to
make speeches, and specially before hunting or
any nocturnal goings-forth, since Diana is the
goddess of the chase and of night. But woe
to him who does it for a jest !
44 ARABIA
CHAPTER VIII
TO HAVE A GOOD VINTAGE AND VERY GOOD
WINE BY THE AID OF DIANA
'* Sweet is the rintage when the showering grapes
In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth,
Purple and gushing."
— Byron, Donjuan^ c. 124.
'' Vinum bonum et suave.
Bonis bonum, pravis prave, .
O quam dulcis sapor — ave I
Mundana laetitia I "
— Latin Songs, E. DU MSRIL.
He who would have a good vintage and fine wine,
should take a horn full of wine and with this go into
the vineyards or farms wherever vines grow, and then
drinking from the horn, say : —
Bevo ma non bevo il vino,
Bevo il sangue di Diana^
Che da vino nel sangue di Diana
Si deve convertire,
£ in tutte le mie viti
Lo spandera,
£ buona raccolta mi verra
£ quando avro avuto buona raccolta,
Non saro ancora fuori di sciagura,
Perche il vino cattivo mi puol venire
Perche puol nascere 1' uva
A luna vecchia . . .
E cosi il mio vino puole sempre andare
In malora — ma io bevendo
In questo como, e bevendo il sangue,
II sangue di Diana col sua aiuto
La mano alia Luna nuova io bacero,
Che la mia uva possa guardare,
Al momento che crea 1' occhtolo
Alia Crescenza del uva
£ tino al!a raccolCa,
Che possa venire il mio vino buono,
E che si possa m ante n ere
Da prendere molti quattrini,
E possa entrare la buona fortuna
Neile mi e vigne,
£ nei miei poderi !
Quando il mio vino pendera
Di andaie a male, il corno prendero,
E forte, forte Io suonero,
Nel punto deila mezza notte,
Dentro alia mia cantina Io suonero,
Lo suonero lanto forte
Che tu bella Diana anche da molto lontano,
Tu lo possa sentire,
E finestre e porte
Con gran forza tu possa spalancare.
■aftAtoiA- '
A gran corsa tu mi possa venire,
A trovare, e tu possa salvarmi
II mio vino, e tu possa salvare,
Salvare me da grande sciagura,
Perche se il mio vino a male andera
La miseria mi prendera.
£ col tuo aiuto bella Diana,
lo saro salvato.
I drink, and yet it is not wine I drink,
I drink the blood of Diana,
Since from wine it has changed into her blood,
And spread itself through all my growing vines,
Whence it will give me good return in wines,
Though even if good vintage should be mine,
I'll not be free from care, for should it chance
That the grape ripens in the waning moon.
Then all the wine would come to sorrow, but
If drinking from this hotn I drink the blood —
The blood of great Diana — by her aid —
If I do kiss my hand to the new moon,
Praying the Queen that she will guard my grapes,
Even from the instant when the bud is born
Until it is a ripe and perfect grape,
And onward to the vintage, and to the last
Until the wine is made — may it be good !
And may it so succeed that I from it
May draw good profit when at last 'tis sold.
So may good fortune come unto my vines,
And into all my land where'er it be !
But should my vines seem in an evil way,
I'll take my horn, and bravely will I blow
In the wine-vault at midnight, and I'll make
Such a tremendous and a terrible sound
That thou, Diana fair, however far
Away thou may'st be, stJU shalt hear the call.
And casting open door or window wide,
Shalt headlong come upon the rushing wind,
And find and save me— that is, save my vines.
Which will be saving me from dire distress;
For should I lose them I'd be lost myself.
But with thy aid, Diana, I'll be saved.
[This is a very interesting invocation and tradi-
tion, and probably of great antiquity from very
striking intrinsic evidence. For it is firstly de-
voted to a subject which has received little atten-
tion — the connection of Diana as the moon
with Bacchus, although in the great Dizionario
Storico Mitologico, by Pozzoli and others, it is
expressly asserted that in Greece her worship
was associated with that of Bacchus, Escula-
pius, and Apollo. The connecting link is the
Iwrn. In a medal of Alexander Severus, Diana
of Ephesus bears the horn of plenty. This is
the horn or horns of the new moon, sacred to
Diana. According to Callimachus, Apollo him-
self built an altar consisting entirely of horns
to Diana,
The connection of the horn with wine is
obvious. It was usual among the old Slavonians
for the priest of Svantevit, the Sun-god, to see
if the horn which the idol held in his hand
was full of wine, in order to prophesy a good
harvest for the coming year. If it was filled, all
was right ; if not, he filled the horn, drank from
it, and replaced the horn in the hand, and pre-
dicted that all would eventually go well.' It
cannot fail to strike the reader that this cere-
mony is strangely like that of the Italian invoca-
tion, the only difference being that in one the
Sun, and in the other the Moon is invoked to
secure a good harvest.
In the Legends of Florence there is one of
the Via del Corno, in which the hero, falling
into a vast tun or tina of wine, is saved from
drowning by sounding a horn with tremendous
power. At the sound, which penetrates to an
incredible distance, even to unknown lands,
all come rushing as if enchanted to save him.
In this conjuration, Diana, in the depths of
heaven, is represented as rushing at the sound
of the horn, and leaping through doors or
windows to save the vintage of the one who
blows. There is a certain singular affinity in
these stories.
In the story of the Via del Coma, the hero is
' Krbusslbr, Serbanvafdiickt Altirthuma; Ft. I, p. 273,
saved by the Red Goblin or Robin Goodfellow,
who gives him a horn, and it is the same sprite
who appears in the conjuration of the Round
Stone, which is sacred to Diana. This is be-
cause the spirit is nocturnal, and attendant on
Diana-Titania.
Kissing the hand to the new moon is a
ceremony of unknown antiquity, and ]0B, even
in his time, regarded it as heathenish and for-
bidden — which always means antiquated and
out of fashion — as when he declared {xxxi. 26,
27), " If I beheld the moon walking in bright-
ness . . . and my heart hath been secretly en-
ticed or my mouth hath kissed my hand . . .
this also were an iniquity to be punished by
the Judge, for 1 should have denied the God
that is above." From which it may or ought
to be inferred that Job did not understand that
God made the moon and appeared in all His
works, or else he really believed the moon was
an independent deity. In any case, it is curious
to see the old forbidden rite still living, and as
heretical as ever.
The tradition, as given to me, very evidently
omits a part of the ceremony, which may be
supplied from classic authority. When the
peasant performs the rite, he must not act as once
a certain African, who was a servant of a friend
of mine, did. The coloured man's duty was
so ARABIA
to pour out every morning a libation of rum
to a fetish — and he poured it down his own
throat The peasant should also sprinkle the
vines, just as the Devonshire farmers, who ob-
served all Christmas ceremonies, sprinkled, also j
from a horn, their apple-trees.
CHAPTER IX
TANA AND ENDAMONE, OK DIANA AND ENDYMION
"Hie ultra Endymionem indormit negligentia:."
" Now it is fabled that Endymion, admittsd to Olympus, whence
he was expelled for want of respect to Juno, was banished for
thirty years to earth. And having been allowed to sleep tbii time
in a aivc ot Mount t^lmoB, Diana, smJlten with his beauty, visited
bim every night till she had by him fifty daughters and one soil
And after this Endymioa was recalled to Olympus."
-^Dis. Slar. MUol.
The following legend and the spells were given
under the name or title of Tana. This was the
old Etruscan name for Diana, which is still pre-
served in the Romagna Toscana. In more than
one Italian and French work I have found some
account or tale how a witch charmed a girl to
sleep for a lover, but this is the only explanation
of the whole ceremony known to me.
Tana.
Tana is a beautiful goddess, and she loved a marvel-
lously handsome youth named Endamone ; but her love
was crossed by a witch who was her rival, although
Endamone did not care for the latter.
But the witch resolved to win him, whether he would
or not, and with this intent she induced the servant of
Endamooe to let her pass the night in the latter's room.
And when there, she assumed the appearance of Tana,
nhom he loved, so that he was delighted to behold
her, as he thought, and welcomed her with passionate
embraces. Yet this gave him into her power, for it en-
abled her to perform a certain magic spell by clipping
a lock of his hair.'
Then she went home, and taking a piece of sheep's
intestine, formed of it a purse, and in this she put that
which she had taken, with a red and a black ribbon
bound together, with a feather, and pepper and salt, and
then sang a song. These were the words, a song of witch-
craft of the very old time.
Scongiurazione.
Ho formato questo sachetto a Endaraone,
E la mia vendetta per 1' amore,
Ch'io ti portavo, e non ero corrisposla,
Una altra tu 1' amavi :
Lit bella dea Tana tu amavi,
E tu non 1' avrai ; di passione
Ti struggerai, volonta di fare,
Di fare al amore tu avrai.
' According to all evil witchcraft in the world — especially
among the black Voodoos — any individual can be injored or
killed if the magidan can obtain any portion of the person,
however small, especially a lock of hair. This is specially de-
scribed in Thiodolf ths htaadtr, a romance by La Mottk
FoUQU^. The exchange of locks by lovers is possibly connected
with magic
TANA AND ENDAMONE
53
E non la potrai fare. Sempre addormentato
resterai,
Di un sonno che tutto sentiiai,
E la tua bella tu vedrai,
Ma parlare non potrai
Nel vedere la tua bella,
VolontS. di fare al amore
Vena e non la potrai fare
Come una candela ti straggera,
Ti struggererai poco a poco,
Come una candele a fuoco,
Tu non potrai vivere,
Tu non potrai stare,
Ti sentirai mancare,
Che il tuo cuore ritto sempre possa stare
£ al amore pid non potrai fare
Per 1' amore che io te ho portata vo,
Sia convertito intanto odio
Che questo Endamone e la mia vendetta,
£ cosi sono contenta.
Tht spell.
This bag for Endamon' I wove,
It is my vengeance for the love,
For the deep love I had for thee.
Which thou would'st not return to me,
But bore it all to Tana's shrine,
And Tana never shall be thine I
Now every night in agony
By me thou shalt oppressed be !
ARADIA
From day to day, from hour to hour,
I'll make thee feel the witch's power;
With passion thou shalt be tormented,
And yet with pleasure ne'er contented ;
Enwrapped in slumber thou shalt lie,
To know that thy beloved is by,
And, ever dying, never die,
Without the power to speak a word,
Nor shall her voice by thee be heard;
Tormented by Love's agony,
There shall be no relief for thee !
For my strong spell thou canst not break.
And from that sleep thou ne'er shalt wake :
Little by little thou shalt waste,
Like taper by the embers placed.
Little by little thou shalt die,
Yet, ever living, tortured lie,
Strong in desire, yet ever weak.
Without the power to move or speak.
With all the love 1 had for thee
Shalt thou thyself tormented be,
Since all the love I felt of late
I'll make thee feel in burning hate,
For ever on thy torture bent,
I am revenged, and now content.
But Tana, who was far more powerful than the witch,
though not able to break the spell by which he was
compelled to sleep, took from him all pain (he knew her
in dreams), and embracing him, she sang this counter-
charni.
The Song of Diana.
Endamone, Endamone, Endamone !
Per 1' amore chi mi porti e che io pure,
Ti porto tre croci su questo letto !
Vengo a fare, e tre marroni d' India,
Nel tuo letto vengo a posare,
E questa finestra aperta che la Luna,
Su il tuo letto risplende,
Come risplende 11 nostro amore
La, e la prego con gran calore,
Che vogha dare sfogo a queste due cuore,
Che tanto cl amiano, e se questa grazia,
Mi veirk fatta chiunque sia innamorata,
Se mi scongiurera
In suo aiuto correro !
Endamone, Endamone, Endamone !
Sopra te io mi metto al lume,
II tuo (cuore) to dimeno,
E mi dimeno io pure e cosi,
E cosi tanto farb,
Tanto fari) e tanto faremmo,
Che uniti n
The Counter- Charm.
Endamone, Endamone, Endamone !
By the love I feel, which I
Shall ever feel until I die.
Three crosses on thy bed I make,
And then three wild horse-chestnuts take j^
In that bed the nuts I hide.
And then the window open wide,
That the full moon may cast her light
Upon a love as fair and bright,
And so I pray to her above
To give wild rapture to our love,
And cast her fire in either heart,
Which wildly loves to never part ;
And one thing more I beg of thee !
If any one enamoured be,
And in my aid his love hath placed,
Unto his call I'll come in haste.
So it came to pass that the fair goddess made love
with Endamone as if they had been awake (yet commun-
ing in dreams). And so it is to this day, that whoever
would make love with him or her who sleeps, should
have recourse to the beautiful Tana, and so doing there
will be success.
This legend, wfhile agreeing in many details
with the classical myth, is strangely intermingled
with practices of witchcraft, but even these, if
investigated, would all prove to be as ancient as
the rest of the text. Thus the sheep's intestine
— used instead of the red woollen bag which is
' Marroni if India. A strong charm against evil, hence fie-
qnently carried agaiost rheumatism, &.C. The three should come
ftom one shell.
S7
employed in beneficent magic — the red and black
ribbon, which mingles threads of joy and woe —
the (peacock's) feather or lapenna 7HaLigna — pep-
per and salt, occur in many other incantations,
but always to bring evil and cause suffering.^
I have never seen it observed, but it is true,
that Keats in his exquisite poem of Endymion
completely departs from or ignores the whole
spirit and meaning of the ancient myth, while in
this rude witch-song it is minutely developed.
The conception is that of a beautiful youth fur-
tively kissed in his slumber by Dian of reputed
chastity. The ancient myth is, to begin with,
one of darkness and light, or day and night,
from which are born the fifty-one (now fifty-two)
weeks of the year. This is Diana, the night, and
Apollo, the sun, or light in another form. It is
expressed as love-making during sleep, which,
when it occurs in real life, generally has for active
agent some one who, without being absolutely
modest, wishes to preserve appearances. The
established character of Diana among the Ini-
tiated (for which she was bitterly reviled by the
Fathers of the Church) was that of a beautiful
hypocrite who pursued amours in silent secrecy.
"Thus as the moon Endymion lay with her,
So did Hippolytus and Verbio."
(On which the reader may consult Tertullian,
De Falsa Religione, lib. ii. cap. 17, and Pico de
MiRANDULA, La Strega.)
But there is an exquisitely subtle, delicately
strange idea or ideal in the conception o£ the
apparently chaste " clear cold moon " casting her
living light by stealth into the hidden recesses
of darkness and acting in the occult mysteries
of love or dreams. So it struck Byron ' as an
original thought that the sun does not shine on
half the forbidden deeds which the moon wit-
nesses, and this is emphasised in the Itahan
witch-poem. In it the moon is distinctly invoked
as the protectress of a strange and secret amour,
and as the deity to be especially invoked for such
love-making. The one invoking says that the
window is opened, that the moon may shine
splendidly on the bed, even as our love is bright
and beautiful . . . and I pray her to give great
rapture — sfogo — to us.
The quivering, mysteriously beautiful light of
the moon, which seems to cast a spirit of intelli-
gence or emotion over silent Nature, and dimly
1 " The aun set and uprose Ihe yellow moon :
The devil's in ihe moon for mischief; they
Who called her chaste, metbinks, began loo soon
Their nomenclalure ; there is not a day
The longest, not the twenty-first of June,
Sees half the business in a wicked way
On which three ungle houn of moonshine smile."
S9
half awaken it — raising shadows into thoughts
and causing every tree and rock to assume the
semblance o£ a living form, but one which, while
shimmering and breathing, still sleeps in a dream
— could not escape the Greeks, and they ex-
pressed it as Diana embracing Endymion. But
as night is the time sacred to secrecy, and as the
true Diana of the Mysteries was the Queen of
Night, who wore the crescent moon, and mistress
of all hidden things, including "sweet secret sins
and loved iniquities," there was attached to this
myth far more than meets the eye. And just in the
degree to which Diana was believed to be Queen
of the emancipated witches and of Night, or the
nocturnal Venus-Astarte herself, so far would the
love for the sleeping Endymion be understood
as sensual, yet sacred and allegorical. And it is
entirely in this sense that the witches in Italy, who
may claim with some right to be its true inheri-
tors, have preserved and understood the myth.
It is a realisation of forbidden or secret love,
with attraction to the dimly seen beautiful-by-
moonlight, with the fairy or witch-like charm
of the supernatural — a romance all combined in
a single strange form — the spell of Night I
" There is a dangerous silence in that hour,
A stillness which leaves room for the ful! soul
To open all itself, without the power
Of calling wholly back its self-contiol ;
58
(Or
De h\
MiKA
Br.
strai;
appa:
livin;
■
of d
of V
oriii
half
ness
wit(
as t
and
love
win-
spk
and
rapt
Ti
the^
gene-
MADONNA DIANA
CHAPTER X
MADONNA DIANA
" The Mndonna is essentially tbe goddess of the moon."
—"Ifirfki lit tht MHttiii," by E. N. Rolfb.
Once there was, in the very old time in Cettardo A!to,
a girl of astonishing beauty, and she was betrothed to a
young man who was as remarkable for good looks as
herself; but though well born and bred, the fortune
or misfortunes of war or fate had made them both
extremely poor. And if the young lady had one fault,
it was her great pride, nor would she willingly be
married unless in good style, with luxury and festivity,
in a fine garment, with many bridesmaids of rank.
And this became to the beautiful Rorasa — for such
was her name — such an object of desire, that her head
was half turned with it, and the other girls of her
acquaintance, to say nothing of the many men whom
she had refused, mocked her so bitterly, asking her
when the fine wedding was to be, with many other jeers
and sneers, that at last in a moment of madness she
went to the top of a high tower, whence she cast herself;
and to make it worse, there was below a terrible ravine
{baha), into which she fell.
Yet she took no harm, for as she fell there appeared
to her a very beautiful woman, truly not of earth, wb~
took her by the hand and bore her through the air to a
safe place.
Then ail the people round about who saw or heard of
this thing cried out, " Lo, a miracle ! " and they came and
made a great festival, and would fain persuade Rorasa
that she had been saved by the Madonna.
But the lady who had saved her, coming to her
secretly, said; "If thou hast any desire, follow the
Gospel of Diana, or what is called the Gospel of
the Witches (// Vangelo dtlU Strege), who worship the
" Se la Luna adorerai
Tutto tu otterai."
" If thou adorest Luua, then
What thou desir'st thou shait obtain ! "
Then the beautiful girl went forth alone by night to
the fields, and kneeling on a stone in an old ruin, she
worshipped the moon and invoked Diana thus : —
Diana, bella Diana!
Tu che della grande caduta
Mi ai bene salvata !
Ti prego di farmi una altra grazia,
Di farmi far' un belio sposalizio,
Una sposalizio ricco e 'compagnato
Da molte signore . . .
Se questa grazia mi farai
Sempre il Vangelo delle Strege
lo asseriro.
Diana, beautiful Diana. 1
Thou who didst save from a dreadful death
When I did fall into the dark ravine !
I pray thee grant me still another grace.
Give me one glorious wedding, and with it
Full many bridesmaids, beautiful and grand;
And if this favour thou wilt grant to me,
True to the Witches' Gospel I will be !
When Rorasa awoke in the morning, she found herself
in another house, where all was far more magnificent,
and having risen, a beautiful maid led her into another
room, where she was dressed in a superb wedding-
garment of white silk with diamonds, for it was her
wedding-dress indeed. Then there appeared ten young
ladies, all splendidly attired, and with them and many
distinguished persons she went to the church in a
carriage. And all the streets were filled with music
and people bearing flowers.
So she found the bridegroom, and was wedded to her
heart's desire, ten times more graridly than she had ever
dreamed of. Then, after the ceremony, there was spread
a feast at which all the nobility of Cettardo were present,
and, moreover, the whole town, rich and poor, were
feasted.
When the wedding was finished, the bridesmaids
made every one a magnificent present to the bride —
one gave diamonds, another a parchment (written) in
gold, after which they asked permission to go all together
into the sacristy. And there they remained for some
hours undisturbed, till the priest sent his chierico to
inquire whether they wanted anything. But what was
the youth's amazement at beholding, not the ten brides-
maids, but their ten images or hkenesses in wood and in
terra-cotta, with that of Djana standing on a moon, and
they were all so magnificently made and adorned as to
be of immense va!ue.
Therefore the priest put these images into the church,
which is the most ancient in Cettardo, and now in many
churches you may see the Madonna and Moon, but it
is Diana — la Dea della Luna. The name Rorasa seems
to indicate the Latin ros the dew, rorare, to bedew,
rorulenta, bedewed — in fact, the goddess of the dew.
Her great fall and being lifted by Diana suggest the
fall of dew by night, and its rising in vapour under the
influence of the moon. It is possible that this is a very
old Latin mythic tale. The white silk and diamonds
indicate the dew.
CHAPTER XI
THE HOUSE OF THE WIND
" Lwt to the whoop and whisllc of the winds,
Theii hollow dione us they come roaring on,
For strength hath many a voice, and when aronscd
The flying tempest calls with SiWfu] joy
And echoes as it strikes the moimlain-Hde,
Then crashes in the forest. Hear the cry 1
Surely a god hath set his lions loose
And laughs to hear them as they rage afei."
— C. G. Lb LAND,
The following story does not belong to the
Gospel of the Witches, but I add it as it confirms
the fact that the worship of Diana existed for a
long time contemporary with Christianity. Its
full title in the orginal MS., which was written out
by Maddalena, after hearing it from a man who
was a native of Volterra, is La Pellegrirui della
Casa al Venta — " The Female Pilgrim of the
House of the Wind." It may be added that, as
the tale declares, the house in question is still
standing.
There is a peasant's house at the beginning of the
hill or ascent leading to Volterra, and it is called the
House of the Wind. Near it there once stood a small
palace, wherein dwelt a married couple, who had but
one child, a daughter, whom they adored. Truly if the
child had but a headache, they each had a worse attack
from fear.
Little by httle the girl grew older, and all the thought
of the mother, who was very devout, was that she should
become a nun. But the girl did not like this, and
declared that she hoped to be married like others. And
when looking from her window one day, she saw and
heard the birds singing in the vines and among the trees
all so merrily, she said to her mother that she hoped
some day to have a family of little birds of her own,
singing round her in a cheerful nest At which the
mother was so angry that she gave her daughter a cuff.
And the young lady wept, but replied with spirit, that
if beaten or treated in any such manner, that she would
certainly soon find some way to escape and get married, for
she had no idea of being made a nun of against her will.
At hearing this the mother was seriously frightened,
for she knew the spirit of her child, and was afraid lest
the girl already had a lover, and would make a great
scandal over the blow ; and turning it all over, she
thought of an elderly lady of good family, but much
reduced, who was famous for her intelligence, learning,
and power of persuasion, and she thought, "This will
be just the person to induce my daughter to become
pious, and fill her head with devotion and mate a n
of her." So she sent for this clever person, who was
at once appointed the governess and constant attendant
of the young lady, who, instead of quarrelling with her
guardian, became devoted to her.
THE HOUSE OF THE WIND
However, everything in this world does not go exactly
as we would have it, and no one knows what fish or
crab may hide under a rock in a river. For it so
happened that the governess was not a Catholic at all,
as will presently appear, and did not vex her pupil with
any threats of a nun's life, nor even with an approval
of it.
It came to pass that the young lady, who was in the
habit of lying awake on moonlight nights to hear the
nightingales sing, thought she heard her governess in
the next room, of which the door was open, rise and go
forth on the great balcony, The next night the same
thing took place, and rising very softly and unseen, she
beheld the lady praying, or at least kneeling in the
moonlight, which seemed to her to be very singular
conduct, the more so because the lady kneeling uttered
words which the younger could not understand, and
which certainly formed no part of the Church service.
And being much exercised over the strange occur-
rence, she at last, with timid excuses, told her governess
what she had seen. Then the latter, after a litde reflec-
tion, first binding her to a secrecy of life and death, for,
as she declared, it was a matter of great peril, spoke as
follows : —
" I, like thee, was instructed when young by priests to
worship an invisible god. But an old woman in whom
I had great confidence once said to me, ' Why worship
a deity whom you cannot see, when there is the Mood
in all her splendour visible ? Worship her. Invoke
Diana, the goddess of the Moon, and she will grant
your prayers.' This shall thou do, obeying the Fangelo,
the Gospel of (the Witches and of) Diana, who is Queen
of the Fairies and of the Moon."
Now the young lady being persuaded, was converted
to the worship of Diana and the Moon, and having
prayed with all her heart for a lover (having learned the
conjuration to the goddess),^ was soon rewarded by the
attention and devotion of a brave and wealthy cavalier,
who was indeed as admirable a suitor as any one could
desire. But the mother, who was far more bent on
gratifying vindictiveness and cruel vanity than on her
daughter's happiness, was infuriated at this, and when
the gentleman came to her, she bade him begone, for
her daughter was vowed to become a nun, and a nun
she should be or die.
Then the young lady was shut up in a cell in a tower,
without even the company of her governess, and put
to strong and hard pain, being made to sleep on the
stone floor, and would have 'died of hunger had her
mother had her way.
Then in this dire need she prayed to Diana to set
her free ; when lo ! she found the prison door unfastened,
and easily escaped. Then having obtained a pilgrim's
dress, she travelled far and wide, teaching and preaching
the religion of old times, the religion of Diana, the
Queen of the Fairies and of the Moon, the goddess
of the poor and the oppressed.
And the fame of her wisdom and beauty went forth
over all the land, and people worshipped her, calling her
La Bella Pdkgrina. At last her mother, hearing of her,
' This incarnation is given in Ihe chapter enlilled "A Spell lo
THE HOUSE OF THE WIND
was in a greater rage than ever, and, in fine, after much
trouble, succeeded in having her again arrested and cast
into prison. And then in evil temper indeed she asked
her whether she would become a nun; to which she re-
plied that it was not passible, because she had left the
Catholic Church and become a worshipper of Diana
and of the Moon,
And the end of it was that the mother, regarding
her daughter as lost, gave her up to the priests to be
put to torture and death, as they did all who would
not agree with them or who left their religion.
But the people were not well pleased with this, be-
cause they adored her beauty and goodness, and there
were few who had not enjoyed her charity.
But by the aid of her lover she obtained, as a last
grace, that on the night before she was to be tortured
and executed she might, with a guard, go forth into
the garden of the palace and pray,
This she did, and standing by the door of the house,
which is still there, prayed in the light of the full moon
to Diana, that she might be delivered from the dire
persecution to which she had been subjected, since
even her own parents had willingly given her over to
an awful death.
Now her parents and the priests, and all who sought
her death, were in the palace watching lest she should
escape.
When !o ! in answer to her prayer there came a terrible
tempest and overwhelming wind, a storm such as man
had never seen before, which overthrew and swept away
the palace with all who were in it ; there was not one
10
ARADIA
stone left upon another, nor one soul alive of all who
were there. The gods had replied to the prayer.
The young lady escaped happily with her lover,
wedded him, and the house of the peasant where the
lady stood is still called La Casa al Vento, or the House
of the Wind.
This is very accurately the story as I received
it, but I freely admit that 1 have very much con-
densed the language of the original text, which
consists of twenty pages, and which, as regards
needless padding, indicates a capacity on the
part of the narrator to write an average modern
fashionable novel, even a second-rate French
one, which is saying a great deal. It is true that
there are in it no detailed descriptions of scenery,
skies, trees, or clouds — and a great deal might
be made of Volterra in that way— but it is pro-
longed in a manner which shows a gift for it.
However, the narrative itself is strangely original
and vigorous, for it is such a relic of pure classic
heathenism, and such a survival of faith in the
old mythology, as all the reflected second-hand
Hellenism of the .(Esthetes cannot equal. That
a real worship of or belief in classic divinities
should have survived to the present day in the
very land of Papacy itself, is a much more curious
fact than if a living mammoth had been discovered
in some out of the way corner of the earth, because
the former is a human phenomenon. I foresee
71
that the day will come, and that perhaps not so
very far distant, when the world of scholars will
be amazed to consider to what a late period an
immense body of antique tradition survived in
Northern Italy, and how indifferent the learned
were regarding it ; there having been in very
truth only one man, and he a foreigner, who
earnestly occupied himself with collecting and
preserving it.
It is very probable that there were as many
touching episodes among the heathen martyrs
who were forced to give up their beloved deities,
such as Diana, Venus, the Graces, and others, who
were worshipped for beauty, as there were even
among the Christians who were thrown to the
lions. For the heathen loved their gods with a
human personal sympathy, without mysticism or
fear, as if they had been blood-relations ; and
there were many among them who really believed
that such was the case when some damsel who
had made a faux pas got out of it by attri-
buting it all to some god, faun, or satyr; which
is very touching. There is a great deal to be
said for as well as against the idolaters or wor-
shippers of dolls, as I heard a small girl define
them.
CHAPTER XII
TANA, THE MOON-GODDESS
The following story, which appeared originally in
the Legends of Florence, collected from the people
by me, does not properly belong to the Witch's
Gospel, as it is not strictly in accordance with it ;
and yet it could not well be omitted, since it is
on the same subject. In it Diana appears simply
as the lunar goddess of chastity, therefore not as
a witch. It was given to me as Fana, but my
informant said that it might be Tana ; she was not
sure. As Tana occurs in another tale, and as the
subject is certainly Diana, there can hardly be a
question of this.
Tana, la Dea delta Luna.
Tana was a very beautiful girl, but extremely poor,
and as modest and pure as she was beautiful and
humble. She went from one contadino to another, or
from farm to farm to work, and thus ted an honest life.
There was a young boor, a very ugly, bestial, and
brutish fellow, who was after his fashion raging with love
for her, but she could not so much as bear to look at
him, and repelled all his advances.
73
But late one night, when she was returning alone from
the farmhouse where she had worked to her home, this
man, who had hidden himself in a thicket, leaped out
on her and cried, "Non mi sfuggerai ; sara mia!" —
" Thou canst not flee ; mine thou shalt be I "
And seeing no help near, and only the full moon
looking down on her from heaven. Tana in duspair cast
herself on het knees and cried to it : —
" I have no one on earth to defend me,
Thou alone dost see me in this strait ;
Therefore I pray to thee, O Moon !
As thou art beautiful so thou art bright.
Flashing thy splendour over all mankind ;
Even so I pray thee light up the mind
Of this poor ruffian, who would wrong me here,
Even to the worst. Cast light into his soul,
That he may let me be in peace, and then
Return in all thy light unto my home ! "
When she had said this, there appeared before her a
bright but shadowy form — una ontbra bianca — which
said ; —
" Rise, and go to thy home !
Thou hast well deserved this grace ;
No one shall trouble thee more,
Purest of all on earth !
Thou shalt a goddess be,
The Goddess of the Moon,
Of all enchantment queen ! "
Thus it came to
spirit of the Moon.
pass that Tana became the dta or
74
ARADIA
Though the air be set to a different key, this
is a poem of pure melody, and the same as
Wordsworth's "Goody Blake and Harry Gill."
Both Tana and the old dame are surprised and
terrified ; both pray to a power above :—
" The cold, cold moon above her head.
Thus on her knees did Goody pray ;
Young Harry heard what she had said,
And icy cold he turned away."
The dramatic centre is just the same in both.
The English ballad soberly turns into an incur-
able fit of ague inflicted on a greedy young boor ;
the Italian witch-poetess, with finer sense, or
with more sympathy for the heroine, casts the
brute aside without further mention, and apotheo-
sises the maiden, identifying her with the Moon.
The former is more practical and probable, the
latter more poetical.
And here it is worth while, despite digression,
to remark what an immense majority there are
of people who can perceive, feel, and value
poetry in mere words or ybrw— that is to say,
objectively — and hardly know or note it when it
ia presented subjectively or as thought, but not
put into some kind of verse or measure, or
regulated form. This is a curious experiment
and worth studying. Take a passage from some
famous poet ; write it out in pure simple prose.
TANA, THE MOON-GODDESS 75
doing full justice to its real meaning, and if it still
actually thrills or moves as poetry, then it is of
the first class. But if it has lost its glamour
absolutely, it is second-rate or inferior ; for the
best cannot be made out of mere words varnished
with associations, be they of thought or feeling.
This is not such a far cry from the subject as
might be deemed. Reading and feeling them
subjectively, 1 am often struck by the fact that
in these Witch traditions which 1 have gathered
there is a wondrous poetry of thought, which far
excels the efforts of many modern bards, and
which only requires the aid of some clever work-
man in words to assume the highest rank. A
proof of what I have asserted may be found in
the fact that, in such famous poems as the
Finding of the Lyre, by James Russell Lowell, and
that on the invention of the pipe by Pan, by
Mrs. Browning, that which formed the most ex-
quisite and refined portion of the original myths
is omitted by both authors, simply because they
missed or did not perceive it. For in the former
we are not told that it was the breathing of the
god Air (who was the inspiring soul of ancient
music, and the Bellaria of modern witch-mytho-
logy) on the dried filament of the tortoise, which
suggested to Hermes the making an instrument
wherewith he made the music of the spheres and
guided the course of the planets. As for Mrs.
Browning, she leaves out Syrinx altogether, that
is to say, the voice of the nymph still lingering
in the pipe which had been her body. Now to
my mind the old prose narrative of these myths
is much more deeply poetical and moving, and
far more inspired with beauty and romance, than
are the well-rhymed and measured, but very
imperfect versions given by our poets. And in
fact, such want of intelligence or perception may
be found in all the "classic" poems, not only of
Keats, but of almost every poet of the age who
has dealt in Greek subjects.
Great license is allowed to painters and poets,
but when they take a subject, especially a deep
tradition, and fail to perceive its real jneaning
or catch its point, and simply give us something
very pretty, but not so inspired with meaning as
the original, it can hardly be claimed that they
have done their work as it might, or, in fact,
should have been done. I find that this fault
does not occur in the Italian or Tuscan witch-
versions of the ancient fables; on the contrary,
they keenly appreciate, and even expand, the
antique spirit. Hence 1 have often had occasion
to remark that it was not impossible that in some
cases popular tradition, even as it now exists,
has been preserved more fully and accurately
than we find it in any Latin writer.
Now apropos of missing the point, 1 would
tWa, the moon-goddess '
remind certain very literal readers that if they
find many faults of grammar, mis-spelling, and
worse in the Italian texts in this book, they will
not, as a distinguished reviewer has done, attri-
bute them all to the ignorance of the author, but
to the imperfect education of the person who col-
lected and recorded them. I am reminded of this
by having seen in a circulating library a copy
of my Legends of Florence, in which some good
careful soul had taken pains with a pencil to
correct all the archaisms. Wherein he or she
was like a certain Boston proof-reader, who in
a book of mine changed the spelling of many
citations from Chaucer, Spenser, and others
into the purest, or impurest, Webster ; he
being under the impression that I was extremely
ignorant of orthography. As for the writing in
or injuring books, which always belong partly
to posterity, it is a sin of vulgarity as well as
morality, and indicates what people are more than
they dream,
" Only a cad as low as a thief
Would write in a book or turn down a leaf,
Since 'tis thievery, as well is known.
To make free with that which is not our own."
CHAPTER Xlil
DIANA AND THE CHILDREN
" And there withall Diana gan appere
Wilh bowc in huid right as an Hunteresse,
And saydS, ' Daughter, stint thine beavinesse ! '
And forth she wente and made a vanishing."
— Chaucer (C. 7".), "Tkt Knighes Tale."
There was in Florence in the oldest time a noble
family, but grown so poor that their giorni di festa or
feast-days were few and far between. However, they
dwelt in their old palace {which was in the street now
called La Via Cittadella), which was a fine old building,
and so they kept up a brave show before the world,
when many a day they hardly had anything to eat.
Round this palace was a large garden, in which stood
an ancient marble statue of Diana, like a beautiful
woman who seemed to be running with a dog by her
side. She held in her hand a bow, and on her forehead
was a small moon. And it was said that by night, when
all was still, the statue became like life and fled, and did
not return till the moon set or the sun rose.
The father of the family had two children, who were
good and intelligent. One day they came home with
many flowers which had been given to them, and the
little girl said to her brother : —
DIANA AND THE CHILDREN
79
" The beautifui lady with the bow ought to have some
of these ! "
Saying this, ihey laid flowers before the statue and
made a wreath which the boy placed on her head.
Just then the great poet and magician Virgil, who
knew everything about the gods and fairies, entered the
garden and said, smiling : —
" You have made the offering of flowers to the goddess
quite correctly, as they did of old ; all that remains is to
pronounce the prayer properly,^ and it is this : "
So he repeated the
Invocation to Diana.
Bella dea dell' arco !
Bella dea delle freccie !
Delia caccia e dei cani !
Tu vegli coUe stelle,
Quando 11 sole va dormir
Tu colla luna in fronte
Cacci la notte meglio del di.
CoUe tue Ninfe al suono
Di trombe — Sei la regtna
Dei cacciatori — regina della notte,
Tu che sei la cacciatrice
Pill potenti di ogni,
Cacciator — ti prego
Fensa un poco a noi !
I The most importint port of witclicrafc is to iiUoae or accent
the incantations accurately, in a mHimer like that of church cbant-
ing or Aiab recitations. Hence the apparently prose form of mosi
To Diana.
Lovely Goddess of the bow !
Lovely Goddess of the arrows I
Of all hounds and of all huDting
Thou who wakest in starry heaven
When the sun is sunk in slumber
Thou with moon upon thy forehead,
Who the chase by night prefenest
Unto hunting in the daylight,
With thy nymphs unto the music
Of the horn — thyself the huntress,
And most powerful ; I pray thee
Think, although but for an instant,
Upon us who pray unto thee 1 ^
ThcD Virgil taught them also the Scongiurauone or
spell to be uttered when good fortune or aught is speci-
ally required.
The Conjuration to Diana.
" Bella dea del arco del cielo !
Delle steile e della luna !
La regina piii potente
Dei cacciatori e della notte !
A te ricorriamo,
E chiedamo il tuo aiuto
Che tu possa darci
Sempre la buona fortuna ! "
' It is 10 be observed th3.t tbe invocation is strictly a psalm of
priise o[ a hymn ; the scongiuraiione is a request or prayer, though
3r menace. This only eiists in
JlANA AND THE CHILDREN
Fair goddess of ihe rainbow,
Of the stars and of the moon 1
The queen most powerful
Of hunters and the night I
We beg of thee thy aid,
That thou may'st give to us
The best of fortune ever !
Then he added the conclusion -. —
" Se la nostra scongiuraztone
Ascolterai,
E buona fortuna ci darei,
Un segnale a noi lo darei ! "
If thou heed'st our evocation
And wilt give good fortune to us,
Then in proof give us a tolten ! '
' Something is heie omitted, wliich can, however, be supplied from
many other similar incantations. It was prqbably as follows : —
If thou art favouiable
And wilt grant my prayer,
Then may I hear
The bark of a dog.
The neigh of a horse,
The croaking of a frog,
The chirp of a bird.
The song of a cricket,
et catira.
Three or four of these sounds were generally selected. They
vary more or less, but seldom materially, from these. Sometimes
visible manifestations, as, for instance, lightning, are requested.
To see a white horse is a sign that the prayer will be granted
after some delay. It also signifies tiictory.
And having taught them this, Virgil departed.
Then the children ran to tell their patents all that
had happened, and the latter impressed it on them to
keep it a secret, nor breathe a word or hint thereof to
any one. But what was their amazement when they
found early the next morning before the statue a deer
freshly killed, which gave them good dinners for many a
day ; nor did they want thereafter at any time game of all
kinds, when the prayer had been devoutly pronounced.
There was a neighbour of this family, a priest, who
held in hate all the ways and worship of the gods of the
old time, and whatever did not belong to kis religion,
and he, passing the garden one day, beheld the statue
of Diana crowned with roses and (other) flowers. And
being in a rage, and seeing in the street a decayed
cabbage, he rolled it in the mud, and threw it all drip-
ping at the face of the goddess, saying : —
" Ecco mala bestia d' idoli !
Questo e 1' omaggio che io ti do,
Gia che il diavolo ti aiuta ! "
Behold, thou vile beast of idolatry.
This is the worship which thou hast from me,
And the devil do the rest for thee !
Then the priest heard a voice in the gloom where the
leaves were dense, and it said : —
" Bene, bene ! Tu mi hai fatto
L' offrando— tu avrai
La tua porzione
Delia mia caccia. Aspetta ! "
IIANA AND THE CHILDREN
It is well ! I give thee warning.
Since thou hast made thy offering,
Some of the game to thee I'll bring ;
Thou'lt have thy share in the morning.
1
All that night the priest suffered from horrible dreams
and dread, and when at last, just before three o'clock,
he fell asleep, he suddenly awoke from a nightmare in
which it seemed as if something heavy rested on his
chest. And something indeed fell from him and rolled
on the floor. And when he rose and picked it up, and
looked at it by the light of the moon, he saw that it was
a human head, half decayed-^
Another priest, who had heard his cry of terror, entered
his room, and having looked at the head, said : —
"1 know that face! It is of a man whom I con-
fessed, and who was beheaded three months ago at
Siena."
And three days after the priest who had insulted the
goddess died.
The foregoing tale was not given to me as
belonging to the Gospel of the Witches, but as
one of a very large series of traditions relating
to Virgil as a magician. But it has its proper
place in this book, because it contains the invo-
cation to and incantation of Diana, these being
remarkably beautiful and original. When we
' " La testa, d' imuomo piena di verrne e puiiolenle." A parody
in kind for Ihe decayed cabbage, much completer than tbe end of
the German tale lesembling iU
remember how these "hymns" have been handed
down or preserved by old women, and doubtless
much garbled, changed, and deformed by trans-
mission, it cannot but seem wonderful that so
much classic beauty stili remains in them, as,
for instance, in
" Lovely goddess of the bow !
Lovely goddess of the arrow !
Thou who walk'st in starry heaven ! "
Robert Browning was a great poet, but if we
compare all the Italian witch-poems of and to Diana
with the former's much - admired speech of Diana-
Artemis, it will certainly be admitted by impartial
critics that the spells are fully equal to the following
by the bard —
" I am a goddess of the ambrosial courts,
And save by Here, Queen of Pride, surpassed
By none whose temples whiten this the world:
Through Heaven I roll my iucid moon along,
I shed in HeU o'er my pale people peace,
On Earth, I, caring for the creatures, guard
Each pregnant yellow wolf and fox-bitch sleek.
And every feathered mother's callow brood,
And all that love green haunts and loneliness."
This is pretty, but it is only imitation, and neither in
form or spirit really equal to the incantations, which are
sincere in faith. And it may here be observed in sorrow,
yet in very truth, that in a very great number of modern
DIANA AND THE CHILDREN 85
poetical handlings of classic mythic subjects, the writers
have, despite all their genius as artists, produced rococo
work which will appear to be such to another generation,
simply from their having missed the point, or omitted
from ignorance something vital which the folk-lorist
would probably not have lost. Achilles may be admir-
ably drawn, as I have seen him, in a Louis XIV. wig
with a Turkish scimitar, but still one could wish that
the designer had been a little more familiar with Greek
garments and weapons.
CHAPTER XIV
THE GOBLIN MESSENGERS OF DIANA AND
MERCURY
The following tale was not given to me as
connected with the Gospel of the Witches, but
as Diana appears in it, and as the whole con-
ception is that of Diana and Apollo in another
form, I include it in the series.
Many centuries ago there was a folktto, gobUnj or
spirit, or devil-angel — cht saf — who knows what? — and
MeratriOy who was the god of speed and of quickness,
being much pleased with this imp, bestowed on him the
gift of running like the wind, with the privilege that
whatever he pursued, be it spirit, a human being, or
animal, he should certainly overtake or catch it.
This folktto had a beautiful sister, who, like him, ran
errands, not for the gods, but for the goddesses {there
was a female god for every male, even down to the
small spirits) ; and Diana on the same day gave to this
fairy the power that, whoever might chase her, she should,
if pursued, never be overtaken.
One day the brother saw his sister speeding hke a
fiash of lightning across the heaven, and he felt a sudden
strange desire in rivalry to overtake her. So he dashed
™ THE GOBLIN MESSENGERS
after as she flitted on ; but though it was his destiny to
catch, she had been fated never to be caught, and so
the will of one supreme god was balanced by that of
another.
So the two kept flying round and round the edge of
heaven, and at first all the gods roared with laughter,
but when they understood the case, they grew serious,
and asked one another how it was to end.
Then the great father-god said : —
"Behold the earth, which" is in darkness and gloom t
I will change the sister into a moon, and her brother
into a. sun. And so shall she ever escape him, yet will
he ever catch her with his light, which shall fall on her
from afar ; for the rays of the sun are his hands, which
reach forth with burning grasp, yet which are ever
eluded."
And thus it is said that this race begins anew with
the first of every month, when the moon being cold,
is covered wiik as many coats as an omen. But while
the race is being run, as the moon becomes warm
she casts off one garment after another, till she is
naked and then stops, and then when dressed the
race begins again.
As the vast storm-cloud falls in glittering drops,
even so the great myths of the olden time are
broken up into small fairy-tales, and as these
drops in turn reunite
"En riviere ou sur i'estang,"
("On silent lake or streamlet ione,")
as Villon hath it, even so minor myths are
again formed from the fallen waters. In this
story we clearly have the dog made by Vulcan
and the wolf — Jupiter settled the question by
petrifying them — as you may read in Julius
Pollux his fifth book, or any other on mythology.
Is canis fuit postea d Jove in lapidem conversus.
" Which hunting hound, .
Was changed by Jupite:
s well is known,
to stone."
It is remarkable that in this story the moon
is compared to an onion. "The onion," says
Friedrich {Symbolik der Natur, p. 348), " was, on
account of its many skins, among the Egyptians
the emblem and hieroglyph of the many-formed
moon, whose different phases are so clearly seen
in the root when it is cut through, also because
its growth or decrease corresponds with that of
the planet. Therefore it was dedicated to Isis,
the Moon-Goddess." And for this reason the
onion was so holy as to be regarded as having
in itself something of deity ; for which reason
Juvenal remarks that the Egyptians were happy
people to have gods growing in their gardens.
CHAPTER XV
The following very curious tale, with the in-
cantation, was not in the text of the Vangelo, but
it very evidently belongs to the cycle or series
of legends connected with it. Diana is declared
to be the protectress of all outcasts, those to
whom the night is their day, consequently of
thieves ; and Lavema, as we may learn from
Horace {Epistles, i6, i) and Plautus, was pre-
eminently the patroness of pilfering and all
rascality. In this story she also appears as a
witch and humourist.
It was given to me as a tradition of Virgil,
who often appears as one familiar with the mar-
vellous and hidden lore of the olden time.
It happened on a time that Virgil, who knew all
things hidden or magical, he who was a magician and
poet, having heard a speech (or oration) by a famous
talker who had not much in him, was asked what he
thought of it ? And he replied : —
"It seems to me to be impossible to tell whether it
was all introduction or all conclusion ; certainly there
ARADIA
was no body in it. It was like certain fish of whom one
is in doubt whether they are all head or all tail, or only
head and tail ; or the goddess Lavema, of whom no one
ever knew whether she was all head or all body, or
neither or both."
Then the emperor inquired who this deity might be,
for he had never heard of her.
And Virgil replied : —
"Among the gods or spirits who were of ancient
times — may they be ever favourable to us 1 Among
them (was) one female who was the craftiest and
most knavish of them all. She was called Laverna.
She was a thief, and very little known to the
other deities, who were honest and dignified, for she
was rarely in heaven or in the country of the
fairies.
"She was almost always on earth, among thieves,
pickpockets, and panders — she lived in darkness.
" Once it happened that she went (to a mortal), a
great priest in the form and guise of a very beauti-
ful stately priestess (of some goddess), and said to
him : —
" ' You have an estate which I wish to buy. I
intend to build on it a temple to (oui) God. I swear
to you on my body that I will pay thee within a
year.'
" Therefore the priest transferred to her the estate.
" And very soon Lavema had sold off all the crops,
grain, cattle, wood, and poultry. There was not left
the value of four farthings.
"But on the day fixed for payment there was no
Lavtma to be seen. The fair goddess was far away,
and had left her creditor in asso — in the lurch !
" At the same time Lavema went to a great lord and
bought of him a castle, well-furnished within and broad
rich lands without.
" But this time she swore on her head to pay in full
in six months.
"And as she had done by the priest, so she acted to
the lord of the castle, and stole and sold every stick,
furniture, cattle, men, and mice — there was not left
wherewith to feed a fly.
" Then the priest and the lord, finding out who this
was, appealed to the gods, complaining that they had
been robbed by a goddess.
" And it was soon made known to them alt that this
was Lavema.
"Therefore she was called to judgment before all
the gods,
" And when she was asked what she had done with
the property of the priest, unto whom she had sworn by
her body to make payment at the time appointed (and
why had she broken her oath) ?
" She replied by a strange deed which amazed them
all, for she made her body disappear, so that only her
head remained visible, and it cried : —
" ' Behold me ! 1 swore by my body, but body have
I none ! '
"Then all the gods laughed.
" After the priest came the lord who had also been
tricked, and to whom she had sworn by her head. And
in reply to him Lavtma showed to all present her whole
body without mincing matters, and it was one of extreme
beauty, but without a head ; and from the neck thereof
came a voice which said : —
' Behold me, for I am Laverna, who
Have come to answer to that lord's complaint,
Who swears that I contracted debt to him,
And have not paid although the time is o'er,
And that I am a thief because I swore
Upon my head — but, as you all can see,
I have no head at all, and therefore I
Assuredly ne'er swore by such au oath.'
"Then there was indeed a storm of laughter among
the gods, who made the matter right by ordering the
head to join the body, and bidding Laverna pay up
her debts, which she did.
" Then Jove spoke and said : —
" ' Here is a roguish goddess without a duty (or a
worshipper), while there are in Rome innumerable
thieves, sharpers, cheats, and rascals^ — ladri, bindolini,
Iruffafori e scrocconi — who live by deceit.
" ' These good folk have neither a church nor a god,
and it is a great pity, for even the very devils have
their master, Satan, as the head of the family. There-
fore, I command that in future Laverna shall be the
goddess of all the knaves or dishonest tradesmen, with
the whole rubbish and refuse of the human race, who
have been hitherto without a god or a devil, inasmuch
as they have been too despicable for the one or the
other.'
k 93
" And so Lavema became the goddess of all dishonest
and shabby people.
"Whenever any one planned or intended any knavery
or aught wicked, he entered her temple, and invoked
Lavema, who appeared to him as a woman's head. But
if he did his work of knavery badly or maladroitly, when he
again invoked her he saw only the body ; but if he was
clever, then he beheld the whole goddess, head and body.
"£av(ma was no more chaste than she was honest,
and had many lovers and many children. It was said
that not being bad at heart or cruel, she often repented
her life and sins ; but do what she might, she could not
reform, because her passions were so inveterate.
"And if a man had got any woman with child or any
maid found herself enceinU, and would hide it from the
world and escape scandal, they would go ^ every day to
invoke Lavema,
" Then when the time came for the suppliant to be
delivered, Lavema would bear her in sleep during the
night to her temple, and after the birth cast her into
slumber again, and bear her back to her bed at home.
And when she awoke in the morning, she was ever in
vigorous health and felt no weariness, and all seemed to
her as a dream.^
"But to those who desired in time to reclaim their
• This was Q very peculiar character is lie of Diana, who was
involved in a. similar manner. I ha.ve here omitted much needless
verbiage or repetition in the original MS. and also abbreviated
what (oUqws.
' All of this indicates unmistakably, in several respects, a
genuine tradition. In the hands of cmfly priests this would prove
a great aid to popularity.
children, Zavema was indulgent if they led such lives
as pleased her and faithfully worshipped her.
"And this is the ceremony to be performed and the
incantation to be offered every night to Laverna.
" There must be a set place devoted to the goddess,
be it a room, a cellar, or a grove, but ever a solitary
place.
" Then take a small table of the size of forty playing-
cards set close together, and this must be hid in the
same place, and going there at night . . .
" Take forty cards and spread them on the table,
making of them a close carpet or cover on it.
" Take of the herbs paiera and concordia, and boil the
two together, repeating meanwhile the following : —
Scongit
Fa boUire la mano della concordia,
Per tenere a me concord o,
La Laverna che possa portare a me
II mio figlio, e che possa
Guardarmele da qualun pericolo.
BoUo questa erba, man non hollo 1' erba.
Bollo la/rtara^ che possa tenere lontano
Qualunque persona e se le viene
L' idea a quatchuno di awicinarsi,
Possa essere preso dapaura
E fuggire lontano !
' I conjecture thai this is wild poppy. The poppy was spedilly
sacied to Ceres, but also to the Night and its rites, and LiOitma
was a noctunud deity — a play on the word^ufu, or feat.
I
Incantation.
I boil the cluster of concordia
To keep in concord and at peace with me
Laverna, that she may restore to me
My child, and that she by her favouring care
May guard me well from danger all my life !
I boil this herb, yet 'tis not it which boils ;
I boil xhefear, that it may keep afar
Any intruder, and if such should come
(To spy upon my rite), may he be struck
With fear and in his terror haste away ! '
Having said thus, put the boiled herbs in a bottle
and spread the cards on the table one by one, saying : —
Batezzo queste quaranta carte !
Ma non batezzo !e quaranta carte,
Battezzo quaranta dei superi,
Alia dea Laverna che le sue
Persone divengono un Vulcano
Fino che la Laverna non sara
Venuta da me coUa mia creatura,
E quesli dei dal naso dalla bocca,
E dal' orecchio possino buttare
Fiammi di fuoco e cenere,
^ This passage recalls strangely enough the worship of the
Grseco-Raman goddess Favor oi Vtzi, the alteodaiit on Mars.
She was much invoked, as in the present instance, to teirifyintnideis
or an enemy, ^sekylui makes the seven chiefs before Thebes
swear by Fiar, Mais, and Bellona. Mem. Acad, ef Inseriptions,
E lasciare pace e bene alia dea
Lavema, che possa anche essa
Abbraciare i suoi fighi
A sua volunta !
Incantation.
I spread before me now the forty cards,
Yet 'tis not forty cards which here I spread,
But forty of the gods superior
To the deity Lavema, that their forms
May each and all become volcanoes hot,
Until Laverna comes and brings my child ;
And 'till 'tis done may they all cast at her
Hot flames of fire, and with them glowing coals
From noses, mouths, and ears (until she yields) ;
Then may they leave Laverna to her peace,
Free to embrace her children at her will t
"Laverna was the Roman goddess of thieves,
pickpockets, shopkeepers or dealers, plagiarists,
rascals, and hypocrites. There was near Rome a
temple in a grove where robbers went to divide
their plunder. There was a statue of the goddess.
Her image, according to some, was a head with-
out a body ; according to others, a body without
a head ; but the epithet of ' beautiful ' applied
to her by Horace indicates that she who gave
disguises to her worshippers had kept one to
herself." She was worshipped in perfect silence.
97
This is confirmed by a passage in Horace
{Epist. i6, lib, i), where an impostor, hardly
daring to move his lips, repeats the following
prayer or incantation : —
"O Goddess Laverna I
Give me die art of cheating and deceiving,
Of making men believe that I am just,
Holy, and innocent ! extend all darkness
And deep obscurity o'er my misdeeds ! "
It is interesting to compare this unquestion-
ably ancient classic invocation to Lavema with
the one which is before given. The goddess
was extensively known to the lower orders, and
in Plautus a cook who has been robbed of his
implements calls on her to revenge him,
I call special attention to the fact that in this,
as in a great number of Italian witch-incanta-
tions, the deity or spirit who is worshipped, be
it Diana herself or Lavema, is threatened with
torment by a higher power until he or she
grants the favour demanded. This is quite
classic, i.e., Graeco-Roraan or Oriental, in all
of which' sources the magician relies not on
favour, aid, or power granted by either God or
Satan, but simply on what he has been able to
wrench and wring, as it were, out of infinite
nature or the primal source by penance and
98 ARABIA
study, I mention this because a reviewer has
reproached me with exaggerating the degree to
which diabolism — introduced by the Church since
1500 — is deficient in Italy. But in fact, among
the higher class of witches, or in their tradi-
tions, it is hardly to be found at alL In Chris-
tian diabolism the witch never dares to threaten
Satan or God, or any of the Trinity or angels,
for the whole system is based on the concep-
tion of a Church and of obedience.
The herb concordia probably takes its name
from that of the goddess Concordia, who was
represented as holding a branch. It plays a
great part in witchcraft, after verbena and rue.
APPENDIX
COMMENTS ON THE FOREGOING
TEXTS
So long ago as the year i8S6 I learned that
there was in existence a manuscript setting
forth the doctrines of Italian witchcraft, and
I was promised that, if possible, it should be
obtained for me. In this I was for a time dis-
appointed. But having urged it on Maddalena,
my collector of folk-lore, while she was leading
a wandering life in Tuscany, to make an effort
to obtain or recover something of the kind, 1
at last received from her, on January r, 1897,
from Colle, Vai d'EIsa, near Siena, the MS.
entitled Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches.
Now be it observed, that every leading point
which forms the plot or centre of this Vangel,
such as that Diana is Queen of the Witches ;
an associate of Herodias {^Aradia) in her re-
lations to sorcery ; that she bore a child to
her brother the Sun (here Lucifer) ; that as a
moon-goddess she is in some relation to Cain,
who dwells as prisoner in the moon, and that
the witches of old were people oppressed by
feudal lands, the former revenging themselves
in every way, and holding orgies to Diana
which the Church represented as being the
worship of Satan — all of this, I repeat, had
been told or written out for me in fragments
by Maddalena (not to speak of other authorities),
even as it had been chronicled by Horst or
Michelet ; therefore all this is in the present
document of minor importance. All of this
I expected, but what I did not expect, and
what was new to me, was that portion which
is given as prose-poetry and which I have
rendered in metre or verse. This being tradi-
tional, and taken down from wizards, is ex-
tremely curious and interesting, since in it
are preserved many relics of lore which, as
may be verified from records, have come down
from days of yore.
Aradia is evidently enough Herodias, who
was regarded in the beginning as associated
with Diana as chief of the witches. This
was not, as I opine, derived from the Herodias
of the New Testament, but from an earlier
replica of Lilith, bearing the same name. It
is, in fact, an identification or twin-ing of the
Aryan and Shemitic Queens of Heaven, or of
Night and of Sorcery, and it may be that this
was known to the earliest myth-makers. So
far back as the sixth century the worship of
Herodias and Diana by witches was condemned
by a Church Council at Ancyra. Pipernus and
other writers have noted the evident identity gf
Herodias with Lilith. his preceded both.
Diana is very vigorously, even dramatically,
set forth in this poem as the goddess of the
god-forsaken and ungodly, of thieves, harlots,
and, truthfully enough, of the "minions of the
moon," as Falstaff would have fain had them
called. It was recognised in ancient Rome, as
it is in modern India, that no human being
can be so bad or vile as to have forfeited all
right to divine protection of some kind or
other, and Diana was this protectress. It may
be as well to observe here, that among all
free-thinking philosophers, educated parias, and
literary or book-Bohemians, there has ever been
a most unorthodox tendency to believe that the
faults and errors of humanity are more due (if
not altogether due) to unavoidable causes which
we cannot help, as, for instance, heredity, the
being born savages, or poor, or in vice, or unto
"bigotry and virtue" in excess, or unto inquisi-
tioning — that is to say, when we are so over-
burdened with innately born sin that all our
free will cannot set us free from it.'
It was during the so-called Dark Ages, or
from the downfall of the Roman Empire until
the thirteenth century, that the belief that all
' Hence the saying th>t to know all would be to forgive all ;
wbich may be nine-Ienths tiue, but there is > tenth of responsible
which was worst in man owed its origin solely
to the monstrous abuses and tyranny of Church
and State. For then, at every turn in life, the
vast majority encountered downright shameless,
palpable iniquity and injustice, with no law for
the weak who were without patrons.
The perception of this drove vast numbers
of the discontented into rebellion, and as they
could not prevail by open warfare, they took
their hatred out in a form of secret anarchy,
which was, however, intimately blended with
superstition and fragments of old tradition.
Prominent in this, and naturally enough, was
the worship of Diana the protectress — for the
alleged adoration of Satan was a far later in-
vention of the Church, and it has never really
found a leading place in Italian witchcraft to
this day. That is to say, purely diabolical witch-
craft did not find general acceptance till the
end of the fifteenth century, when it was, one
may almost say, invented in Rome to supply
means wherewith to destroy the threatening
heresy of Gei-many.
The growth of Sentiment is the increase of
suffering ; man is never entirely miserable until
he finds out how wronged he is and fancies that
he sees far ahead a possible freedom. In ancient
times men as slaves suffered less under even
more abuse, because they believed they were
born to low conditions of life. Even the best
reform brings pain with it, and the great awaken-
jng of man was accompanied with griefs, many
of which even yet endure. Pessimism is the
result of too much culture and introversion.
It appears to be strangely out of sight and
out of mind with all historians, that the suffer-
ings of the vast majority of mankind, or the
enslaved and poor, were far greater under early
Christianity, or till the end of the Middle Ages
and the Emancipation of Serfs, than they were
before. The reason for this was that in the
old "heathen" time the humble did not know,
or even dream, that all are equal before God, or
that they had many rights, even here on earth, as
slaves ; for, in fact, the whole moral tendency of
the New Testament is utterly opposed to slavery,
or even severe servitude. Every word uttered
teaching Christ's mercy and love, humility and
charity, was, in fact, a bitter reproof, not only
to every lord in the land, but to the Church
itself, and its arrogant prelates. The fact that
many abuses had been mitigated and that there
were benevolent saints, does not affect the
fact that, on the whole, mankind was for a long
time worse off than before, and the greatest
cause of this suffering was what may be called
a sentimental one, or a newly-born conscious-
ness of rights withheld, which is always of itself
a torture. And this was greatly aggravated by
the endless preaching to the people that it was a
duty to suffer and endure oppression and tyranny,
and that the rights of Authority of all kinds were
APPENDIX
so great that they on the whole even excused
their worst abuses. For by upholding Authority
in the nobility the Church maintained its own.
The result of it all was a vast development of
rebels, outcasts, and all the discontented, who
adopted witchcraft or sorcery for a religion,
and wizards as their priests. They had secret
meetings in desert places, among old ruins
accursed by priests as the haunt of evil spirits
or ancient heathen gods, or in the mountains.
To this day the dweller in Italy may often find
secluded spots environed by ancient chestnut
forests, rocks, and walls, which suggest fit
places for the Sabbat, and are sometimes still
believed by tradition to be such. And I also
believe that in this Gospel of the Witches we
have a trustworthy outline at least of the doc-
trine and rites observed at these meetings. They
adored forbidden deities and practised forbidden
deeds, inspired as much by rebellion against
Society as by their own passions.
There is, however, in the Evangel of the
Witches an effort made to distinguish between
the naturally wicked or corrupt and those who
are outcasts or oppressed, as appears from the
" Yet like Cain's daughter (offspring) thou shall never be.
Nor like the race who have become at last
Wicked and infamous from suffering.
As are the Jews and wandering Zingari,
Who are all thieves : like them ye shall not be."
The supper of the Witches, the cakes of meal,
salt, and honey, in the form of crescent moons,
are known to every classical scholar. The
moon or horn-shaped cakes are still common,
I have eaten of them this very day, and though
they are known all over the world, I believe they
owe their fashion to tradition.
In the conjuration of the meal there is a very
curious tradition introduced to the effect that
the spige or glittering grains of wheat from
which spikes shoot like sun-rays, owe their
brilliant likeness to a resemblance to the fire-
fly, "who comes to give them light." We have,
1 doubt not, in this a classic tradition, but I
cannot verify it. Hereupon the Vangelo cites a
common nursery-rhyme, which may also be
found in a nursery-tale, yet which, like others,
is derived from witch-lore, by which the lucciola
is put under a glass and conjured to give by its
light certain answers.
The conjuration of the meal or bread, as
being literally our body as contributing to form
it, and deeply sacred because it had lain in the
earth, where dark and wondrous secrets bide,
seems to cast a new light on the Christian sac-
rament. It is a type of resurrection from the
earth, and was therefore used at the Mysteries
and Holy Supper, and the grain had pertained
to chtkonic secrets, or to what had been under
the earth in darkness. Thus even earth-worms
are invoked in modern witchcraft as familiar
APPENDIX
with dark mysteries, and the shepherd's pipe to
win the Orphic power must be buried three days
in the earth. And so all was, and is, in sorcery
a kind of wild poetry based on symbols, all
blending into one another, light and darkness,
fire-Sies and grain, hfe and death.
Very strange indeed, but very strictly accord-
ing to ancient magic as described by classic
authorities, is the threatening Diana, in case she
will not grant a prayer. This recurs continually
in the witch -exorcisms or spelts. The magus, or
witch, worships the spirit, but claims to have the
right, drawn from a higher power, to compel
even the Queen of Earth, Heaven, and Hell to
grant the request, " Give me what I ask, and
thou shalt have honour and offerings ; refuse,
and I will vex thee by insult. " So Canidia
and her kind boasted that they could compel the
gods to appear. This is all classic. No one
ever heard of a Satanic witch invoking or
threatening the Trinity, or Christ or even the
angels or saints. In fact, they cannot even
compel the devil or his imps to obey — they work
entirely by his good-will as slaves. But in the
old Italian lore the sorcerer or witch is all or
nothing, and aims at limitless will or power.
Of the ancient belief in the virtues of a per-
forated stone I need not speak. But it is to be
remarked that in the invocation the witch goes
forth in the earliest morning to seek for verbena
or vervain. The ancient Persian magi, or rather
their daughters, worshipped the sun as it rose
by waving freshly plucked verbena,' which was
one of the seven most powerful plants in magic.
These Persian priestesses were naked while they
thus worshipped, nudity being a symbol of truth
and sincerity.
The extinguishing the lights, nakedness, and
the orgie, were regarded as symbolical of the
body being laid in the ground, the grain being
planted, or of entering into darkness and death,
to be revived in new forms, or regeneration and
light. It was the laying aside of daily life.
The Gospel of the Witches, as 1 have given it,
is in reality only the initial chapter of the col-
lection of ceremonies, "cantrips," incantations,
and traditions current in the fraternity or sister-
hood, the whole of which are in the main to be
found in my Etruscan Roman Remains and
Florentine Legends. 1 have, it is true, a great
number as yet unpublished, and there are more
ungathered, but the whole scripture of this sor-
cery, all its principal tenets, formulas, medica-
ments, and mysteries may be found in what I
have collected and printed. Yet I would urge
that it would be worth while to arrange and edit
it all into one work, because it would be to every
student of archteology, folk-lore, or history of
great value. It has been the faith of millions in
the past ; it has made itself felt in innumerable
traditions, which deserve to be better understood
than they are, and 1 would gladly undertake the
' Friedrich, Symbelik, p. 2S3.
Appendix
work if I believed that the public would make it
worth the publisher's outlay and pains.
It may be observed with truth that I have not
treated this Gospel, nor even the subject of witch-
craft, entirely as folk-lore, as the word is strictly
defined and carried out ; that is, as a mere tra-
ditional fact or thing to be chiefly regarded as
a variant like or unlike sundry other traditions,
or to be tabulated and put away in pigeon-holes
for reference. That it is useful and sensible to
do all this is perfectly true, and it has led to
an immense amount of valuable search, collec-
tion, and preservation. But there is this to be
said — and 1 have observed that here and there
a few genial minds are beginning to awake to it
— that the mere study of the letter in this way
has developed a great indifference to the spirit,
going in many cases so far as to produce, like
Realism in Art (to which it is allied), even a
contempt for the matter or meaning of it, as
originally believed in. ^
I was lately much struck by the fact that in
a very learned work on Music, the author, in
discussing that of ancient times and of the East,
while extremely accurate and minute in deter-
mining pentatonic and all other scales, and what
may be called the mere machinery and history
of composition, showed that he was utterly
ignorant of the fundamental fact that notes and
chords, bars and melodies, were in themselves
ideas or thoughts. Thus Confucius is said to have
composed a melody which was a personal de-
scription of himself. Now if this be not under-
stood, we cannot understand the soul of early
music, and the foik-lorist who cannot get beyond
the letter and fancies himself "scientific" is ex-
actly like the musician who has no idea of how
or why melodies were anciently composed.
The strange and mystical chapter " How
Diana made the Stars and the Rain " is the
same given in my Legends of Florence, vol. ii.
p. 229, but much enlarged, or developed to 2
cosmogo n ic - my tho logic sketch. And here a
reflection occurs which is perhaps the most re-
markable which all this Witch Evangel suggests.
In all other Scriptures of all races, it is the male,
Jehovah, Buddha, or Brahma, who creates the
universe ; in Witch Sorcery it is the female who
is the primitive principle. Whenever in history
there is a period of radical intellectual rebellion
against long -established conservatism, hierarchy,
and the like, there is always an effort to regard
Woman as the fully equal, which means the
superior sex. Thus in the extraordinary war
of conflicting elements, strange schools of sor-
cery, Neo-Plafonism, Cabala, Heretic Christianity,
Gnosticism, Persian Magism and Dualism, with
the remains of old Greek and Egyptian theologies
in the third and fourth centuries at Alexandria,
and in the House of Light of Cairo in the ninth,
the equality of Woman was a prominent doc-
trine. It was Sophia or Helena, the enfranchised,
APPENDIX
who was then the true Christ who was to save
mankind.
When Illumination or Illumin4-ism, in com-
pany with magic and mysticism, and a resolve
to regenerate society according to extreme free-
thought, inspired the Templars to the hope that
they would master the Church and the world,
the equality of Woman, derived from the Cairene
traditions, again received attention. And it may
be observed that during the Middle Ages, and
even so late as the intense excitements which
inspired the French Huguenots, the Jansenists
and the Anabaptists, Woman always came forth
more prominently or played a far greater part
than she had done in social or political life.
This was also the case in the Spiritualism
founded by the Fox sisters of Rochester, New
York, and it is manifesting itself in many ways
in the Fin de Steele, which is also a nervous
chaos according to Nordau, — Woman being
evidently a fish who shows herself most when
the waters are troubled : —
" Oh, Woman, in our hours of ease ! "
The reader will remember the rest. But we
should also remember that in the earlier ages
the vast majority of mankind itself, suppressed
by the too great or greatly abused power of
Church and State, only manifested itself at such
periods of rebellion against forms or ideas grown
old. And with every new rebellion, every fresh
APPENDIX
outburst or debAcU or wild inundation and burst-
ing over the barriers, humanity and woman gain
something, that is to say, their just dues or rights.
For as every freshet spreads more widely its
waters over the fields, which are in due time the
more fertilised thereby, so the world at large
gains by every Revolution, however terrible or
repugnant it may be for a time.
The Emancipated or Woman's Rights woman,
when too enthusiastic, generally considers man as
limited, while Woman is destined to gain on him.
In earlier ages a contrary opinion prevailed, and
both are, or were, apparently in the wrong, so
far as the future is concerned. For in truth both
sexes are progressive, and progress in this respect
means not a conflict of the male and female
principle, such as formed the basis of the Maka-
barata, but a gradual ascertaining of true ability
and adjustment of relations or co-ordination of
powers — in doing which on a scientific basis all
conflict ceases.
These remarks are appropriate to my text and
subject, because it is in studying the epochs when
woman has made herself prominent and influ-
ential that we learn what the capacities of the
female sex truly are. Among these, that of
Witchcraft as it truly was — not as it is gener-
ally quite misunderstood — -is as deeply interesting
as any other. For the Witch — laying aside all
question as to magic or its non-existence — was
once a real factor or great power in rebeUious
APPENDIX
social life, and to this very day — as most novels
bear witness — it is recognised that there is some-
thing uncanny, mysterious, and incomprehensible
in woman, which neither she herself nor man
can explain,
" For every woman is at heart a witch."
We have banished the broom and the cat
and the working miracles, the Sabbat and pacts
with Satan, but the mystery or puzzle is as
great as ever; no one living knows to what it
is destined to lead. Are not the charms of love
of every kind, and the enjoyment of beauty in
all its forms in nature, mysteries, miracles, or
magical ?
To all who are interested in this subject of
woman's influence and capacity, this Evangel
of the Witches will be of value as showing that
there have been strange thinkers who regarded
creation as a feminine development or partheno-
genesis from which the masculine principle vpas
born, Lucifer, or Light, lay hidden in the dark-
ness of Diana, as heat is hidden in ice. But the
regenerator or Messiah of this strange doctrine
is a woman — Aradia, though the two, mother
and daughter, are confused or reflected in the
different tales, even as Jakveh is confused with
the Elohim,
"Remains to be said" — that the Adam-nable
and Eve-il, or Adamite assemblages enjoined in
the Gospel of Sorcery, are not much, if at all,
APPENDIX
kept up by the now few and far between old
or young witches and venerable wizards of the
present day. That is to say, not to my know-
ledge in Central or Northern Italy. But among
the rowA, viveurs, and fast women of Florence
and Milan — where they are not quite as rare as
eclipses — such assemblies are called balH angelici
or angels' balls. They are indeed far from being
unknown in any of the great cities of the world.
A few years ago a Sunday newspaper in an
American city published a detailed account of
them in the "dance-houses" of the town, de-
claring that they were of very frequent occur-
rence, which was further verified to me by men
familiar with them.
A very important point to all who regard the
finds or discoveries of ancient tradition as of im-
portance, is that a deep and extensive study of
the Italian witch-traditions which 1 have collected,
a comparison of them one with the other, and of
the whole with what resembles it in the writings
of Ovid and other mythologists, force the con-
viction (which I have often expressed, but not too
frequently) that there are in these later records
many very valuable and curious remains of an-
cient Latin or Etruscan lore, in all probability
entire poems, tales, and invocations which have
passed over from the ancient tongue. If this be
true, and when it shall come to pass that scholars
will read with interest what is here given, then
most assuredly there will be critical examination
and veri6cation of what is ancient in it, and
it will be discovered what marvels of tradition
stilt endure.
That the witches even yet form a fragmentary
secret society or sect, that they call it that of the
Old Religion, and that there are in the Romagna
entire villages in which the people are completely
heathen, and almost entirely governed by Setti-
mani or " seven months' children," may be read
in the novel of that name, as well as several papers
published in divers magazines, or accepted from
my own personal knowledge. The existence of a
religion supposes a Scripture, and in this case it
may be admitted, almost without severe verifica-
tion, that the Evangel of the Witches is really a
very old work. Thus it is often evident that
where a tradition has been taken down from
verbal delivery, the old woman repeats words or
sentences by whole chapters which she does not
fully understand, but has heard and learned.
These are to be verified by correlation or com-
parison with other tales and texts. Now con-
sidering all this most carefully and critically, or
severely yet impartially, no one can resist the
conviction that in this Gospel of the Witches we
have a book which is in all probability the trans-
lation of some early or later Latin work, since it
seems most probable that every fixed faith finds
its record. There are literary men among the
Pariahs of India ; there were probably many
among the minions of the moon, or nocturnal
worshippers of Diana. In fact, 1 am not without
hope that research may yet reveal in the writings
of some long-forgotten heretic or mystic of the
dark ages the parallel of many passages in this
text, if not the whole of it.
Yet a few years, reader, and all this will have
vanished from among the Italians before the
newspaper and railroad, even as a light cloud
is driven before a gale, or pass away like snow-
flakes in a pond. Old traditions are, in fact,
disappearing with such incredible rapidity that
1 am assured on best authority — and can indeed
see for myself — that what I collected or had
recorded for me ten years ago in the Romagna
Toscana, with exceptionably skilful aid, could
not now be gathered at all by anybody, since
it no longer exists, save in the memories of a
few old sorcerers who are daily disappearing,
leaving no trace behind. It is going — going —
it is all but gone ; in fact, I often think that, old
as I am (and I am twelve years beyond the Umit
of extreme old age as defined by the Duke of
Marlborough in his defence), I shall yet live to
hear the rap of the auctioneer Time as he bids
off the last real Latin sorcerer to Death I It
may be that he is passing in his checks even as
I write. The women or witches, having more
vitality, will last a little longer — I mean the
traditional kind ; for as regards innate natural
dev-elopment of witchcraft and pure cus-tom,
we shall always have with us sorceresses, even
as we shall have the poor — until we all go up
together.
What is very remarkable, even to the being
difficult to understand, is the fact that so much
antique tradition survived with so httle change
among the peasantry. But legends and spells
in families of hereditary witches are far more
hkejy to live than fashions in art, yet even the
latter have been kept since 2000 years. Thus,
as E. Neville Rolfe writes: "The late Signer
Castellani, who was the first to reproduce with
fidelity the jewellery found in the tombs of
Etruria and Greece, made up his mind that some
survival of this ancient and exquisite trade must
still exist somewhere in Italy. He accordingly
made diligent search . . . and in an out of the
way village discovered goldsmiths who made
ornaments for the peasants, which in their
character indicated a strong survival of early
Etruscan art." ^
' I am here reminded, by a strange coincidence, Ihal I having
rediscovered the very ancient and iost art of the Chinese how to
make bottles or vases on which inscriptions, &c., appeared when
wine was poured into them, communicated the discovery on the
ipot where I made it to the brother o( Sifinor Castellani ; Sir
Austin Layard, who had sent for him to hear and judge of it,
being present, Signor Castellani the younger was overseer of the
glass-works at Murano, in which I mode the discovery. Signor
Castellani said thai he had read of these Chinese vases, and
always regarded the story as a fable or impossil>le, but that they
could be made perfectly by my process, adding, however, that they
would cost too much to make it profitable. I admit that I have
little faith in lost arts beyond recoveiing. Described in my book
(unpublished) on the Hundrtd Miimr Arts.
li-9
And here I would remark, that where I have
written perhaps a little too bitterly of the in-
diiference of scholars to the curious traditions
preserved by wizards and witches, I refer to Rome,
and especially to Northern Italy. G. Pitri did
all that was possible for one man as regards
the South. Since the foregoing chapters were
written, I received Naples in the Nineties, by E.
Neville Rolfe, B.A., in which a deep and intelli-
gent interest in the subject is well supported by
extensive knowledge. What will be to the reader
of my book particularly interesting is the amount
of information which Mr. Rolfe gives regard-
ing the connection of Diana with witchcraft, and
how many of her attributes became those of the
Madonna. "The worship of Diana," as he says,
"prevailed very extensively ... so much so, that
when Christianity superseded Paganism, much of
the heathen symbolism was adapted to the new
rites, and the transition from the worship of
Diana to that of the Madonna was made com-
paratively simple." Mr. Rolfe speaks of the
key, rue, and verbena as symbols of Diana ; of
all of these I have incantations, apparently very
ancient, and identified with Diana. I have often
found rue in houses in Florence, and had it
given to me as a special favour. It is always
concealed in some dark corner, because to take
any away is to take luck. The bronze frog was
an emblem of Diana ; hence the Latin proverb,
"He who loves a frog regards it as Diana." It
was made till recent times as an amulet. I have
one as a paper-weight now before me. There is
also an incantation to the frog.
That wherein Mr. Rolfe tacitly and uncon-
sciously confirms what I have written, and what
is most remarkable in this my own work, is that
the wizards in Italy form a distinct class, still
exercising great power in Naples and Sicily, and
even possessing very curious magical documents
and cabalistic charts, one of which (familiar to
those who have seen it among the Takruri and
Arab sorcerers in Cairo, in their books) he gives.
These probably are derived from Malta. There-
fore it will not seem astonishing to the reader
that this Gospel of the Witches should have been
preserved, even as I have given it. That I have
not had or seen it in an old MS. is certainly true,
but that it has been written of yore, and is still
repeated here and there orally, in separate parts,
I am sure.'
It would be a great gratification to me if any
among those into whose hands this book may
fall, who may possess information confirming
what is here set forth, would kindly either com-
municate it or publish it in some form, so that
it may not be lost.
' In a very recent work by Messrs. Nieeforo and .Sighele, entitled
La Mala i'ititaRsma ("Evil Life in Rome"), there is a chapter de-
voted [o the Witches of the Eternal City, of whom the writer says
thejF form a class so hidden Ihil "the most Roman of Romans is
perhaps ignorant of their existence." This is true of the real SIrtga
(hough not of mere fortune-tellers, who ai
THE CHILDREN OF DIANA, OR HOW
THE FAIRIES WERE BORN
All things were made by Diana, the great spirits of
the stars, men in their time and place, the giants which
were of old, and the dwarfs who dwell in the rocks, and
once a nionth worship her with cakes.
There was once a young man who was poor, without
parents, yet was he good.
One night he sat in a lonely place, yet it was very
beautifiil, and there he saw a thousand little fairies,
shining white, dancing in the light of the full moon.
"Gladly would I be like you, O fairies!" said the
youth, "free from care, needing no food. But what
are ye ? "
"We are moon-rays, the children of Diana," replied
one: —
" We are children of the Moon,
We are born of shining light ;
When the Moon shoots forth a ray.
Then it takes a fairy's form.
"And thou art one of us because thou wert born
when the Moon, our mother Diana, was full ; yes, our
brother, kin to us, belonging to our band.
"And if Ihou art hungry and poor . . . and wilt
112 APPENDIX
have money in thy pocket, then think upon the Moon,
on Diana, unto whom thou werC born ; then repeat these
words : —
" ' Luna mia, bella Luna !
Pill di una altra Stella ;
Tu sei sempre bella !
Portatemi la buona fortuna I '
" ' Moon, Moon, beautiful Moon 1
Fairer far than any star ;
Moon, O Moon, if it may be.
Bring good fonune unto me ! '
"And then, if thou hast money in thy pocket, thou
wilt have it doubled.
"For the children who are born in a full moon are
sons or daughters of the Moon, especially when they are
born of a Sunday when there is a high tide.
" ' Alta marea, luna piena, sai,
Grande uomo sicuro tu sareL'
" ' Full moon, high sea.
Great man shalt thou be ! ' "
Then the young man, who had only a paoio ' in his
purse, touched it, saying : —
" Luna mia, bella Luna,
Mia sempre bella Luna I "
" Moon, Moon, beautiful Moon,
Ever be my lovely Moon I "
' Fivepeiici; Roman money.
APPENDIX 123
And so the young man, wishing to make money, bought
and sold and made money, which he doubled every
month.
But it came to pass that after a time, during one
month he could sell nothing, so made nothing. So by
night he said to the Moon —
" Luna mia, Luna bella !
Che io amo piu di altra stella 1
Dimmi perche e fatato
Che io gnente (niente) ho guadagnato ? "
" Moon, O Moon, whom I by far
Love beyond another star.
Tell me why it was ordained
That I this month have nothing gained ? "
Then there appeared to him a little shining elf, who
said : —
" Tu non devi aspettare
Altro che V aiutare,
Quando fai ben lavorare."
" Money will not come to thee.
Nor any help or aid can'st see.
Unless you work industriously."
Then he added : —
" Io non daro mai denaro
Ma r aiuto, mio caro ! "
«
Money I ne'er give, 'tis clear.
Only help to thee, my dear ! "
To be bom in a foil iDooa mem to faavc aa
lightened miad, and a. hi^ tide n ga i fi pt an oa
totdkct aod ftdl of ibooj^. It it not eaaag^ to bne
■ 6tte boat of Fomtoe.
" BUogia ancfae hvome
Per fiiria bene andare;"
" You most alio biarelj row,
If you wifih the bark to ga"
" Ben raremmo e ben dliemmo,
Mai va la barca aenza remo."
" Do your beat, or talk, but more
To row the boat youTl need an oar."
And, aa it Ie laid —
" La fortuna a chi dk
A chi togtie cosi sta,
Qualche volta agli oziosi
Ma )] piEi ai laboriosi."
" Fortune gives and Fortune takes,
And to man a fortune makes.
Sometimes to those who labour shirk,
But oftener to those who work,"
DIANA, QUEEN OF THE SERPENTS, GIVER
OF THE GIFT OF LANGUAGES
In a. long and strange legend of Melambo, a
magian and great physician of divine birth,
there is an invocation to Diana which has a
proper place in this work. The incident in
which it occurs is as follows : —
One day Melambo asked his mother how it was that
while it had been promised that he should know the lan-
guage of all living things, it had not yet come to pass.
And his mother replied: —
"Patience, my son, for it is by waiting and watching
ourselves that we learn how to be taught. And thou
hast within thee the teachers who can impart the
most, if thou wilt seek to hear them ; yes, the professors
who can teach thee more in a few minutes than others
learn in a life."
It befell that one evening Melambo, thinking on this
while playing with a nest of young serpents which his
servant had found in a hollow oak, said :—
" I would that I could talk with you ;
Well I know that ye have a language.
As graceful as y
As brilliant as y
126 APPENDIX
Then he fell asleep, and the young serpents twined
in his hair and began to lick his lips and eyes, while
their mother sang : —
"Diana! Diana! Diana!
Regina delle strege !
£ della notte oscura,
£ di tutta la natura !
Delle stelle e della luna,
E di tutta la fortuna !
Tu che reggi la marea,
Che risplendi il mare nella sera !
Colla luce sulle onde,
La padrona sei del oceano,
Colla tua barca^ fatta,
Fatta k mezza luna,
La tua barca rilucente,
Barca e luna crescente ;
Fai sempre velo in cielo,
E in terra sulla sera,
E anche k navigare
Rifiettata sulla mare,
Preghiamo di dare a questo,
Questo buon Melambo,
Qualunque parlare
Di qualunque animali ! "
The Invocation of the Serpents^ Mother to Diana.
"Diana! Diana! Diana!
Queen of all enchantresses
And of the dark night.
And of all nature,
Of the stars and of the moon.
And of all fate or fortune !
Thou who rulest the tide,
Who shinest by night on the sea,
Casting light upon the waters ;
Thou who art mistress of the ocean
In thy boat made like a crescent,
Crescent moon-bar!c brightly gleaming,
Ever smiling high in heaven.
Sailing too on earth, reflected
In the ocean, on its water ;
We implore thee give this sleeper.
Give unto this good Melambo
The great gift of understanding
What all creatures say while talking ! "
This legend contains much that is very curious ;
among other things an invocation to the fire-
fly, one to Mefitia, the goddess of malaria, and
2 long poetic prophecy relative to the hero.
It is evidently full of old Latin mythologic lore
of a very marked character. The whole of it
may be found in a forthcoming work by the
writer of this book, entitled, "The Unpublished
Legends of Virgil." London, Elliot Stock.
DIANA AS GIVING BEAUTY AND
RESTORING STRENGTH
Diana hath power lo do all things, to give glory to
the lowly, wealth lo the poor, joy to the afflicted, beauty
to the ugly. Be not in grief, if you are her follower;
though you be in prison and in darkness, she will bring
light : many there are whom she sinks that they may
rise the higher.
There was of old in Monteroni a young man so ugly
that when a stranger was passing through the town he
was shown this Gianni, for such was his name, as one of
the sights of the place. Yet, hideous as he was, because
he was rich, though of no family, he had confidence,
and hoped boldly to win and wed some beautiful young
lady of rank.
Now there came to dwell in Monteroni a wonderfully
beautiful biondina, or blonde young lady of culture and
condition, to whom Gianni, with his usual impudence,
boldly made love, getting, as was also usual, a round No
for his reply.
But this time, being more than usually fascinated in
good truth, for there were influences at work he knew
not of, he became as one possessed or mad with pas-
sion, so that he hung about the lady's house by night
and day, seeking indeed an opportunity to rush in and
seize her, or by some desperate trick to master and
bear her away.
But here his plans were defeated, because the lady
had ever by her a great cat which seemed to be of
more than human intelligence, and, whenever Gianni
approached her or her home, it always espied him and
gave the alarm with a terrible noise. And there was
indeed something so unearthly in its appearance, and
something so awful in its great green eyes which shone
like torches, that the boldest man might have been
appalled by them.
But one evening Gianni reflected that it was foolish to
be afraid of a mere cat, which need only scare a boy, and
so he boldly ventured on an attack. So going forth,
he took a ladder, which he carried and placed against
the lady's window. But while he stood at the foot,
he found by him an old woman, who earnestly began to
beg him not to persevere in his intention. " For thou
knowest well, Gianni," she said, "that the lady will
have none of thee ; thou art a terror to her. Do but
go home and look in the glass, and it will seem to
thee that thou art looking on mortal sin in human
form."
Then Gianni in a roaring rage cried, " I will have
my way and my will, thou old wife of the devil, if I
must kill thee and the girl too ! " Saying which, he
rushed up the ladder j but before he had opened or
could enter the window, and was at the top, he found
himself as it were turned to wood or stone, unable to
move.
Then he was overwhelmed with shame, and said,
" Ere long the whole town will be here to witness my
defeat. However, I will make one last appeal." So
he cried : —
"Oh, vecchial thou who didst mean me more kindly
than I knew, pardon me, I beg thee, and rescue me
from this trouble I And if, as I well ween, thou ait
a witch, and if I, by becoming a wizard, may be freed
from my trials and troubles, then I pray thee teach me
how it may be done, so that I may win the young lad]r,
since I now see that she is of thy kind, and that I
must be of it to be worthy of her."
Then Gianni saw the old woman sweep like a flash
of light from a lantern up from the ground, and, touching
him, bore him away from the ladder, when lo ! the light
was a cat, who had been anon the witch, and she
said r —
" Thou wilt soon set forth on a long Journey, and in
thy way thou wilt find a wretched worn-out horse, when
thou must say :—
" ' Fata Diana ! Fata Diana ! Fata Diana !
lo vi scongiuro
Di dare un po di bene,
A quella povera bestia I '
E poi si trovera
Una grossa capia.
Ma un veto caprone,
E tu dirai :
' Bona sera, bel caprone,'
E questo ti risponderi
' Buona sera galantuomo
APPENDIX
i3>
Sono tanto stanco, io
Che non mi sento —
Di andare piii avanti.'
E risponderai al soiito,
' Fata Diana, vi scongiuro,
Di dare pace e bene
A questo caprone ! '
" 'Fairy Diana ! Fairy Diana ! Fairy Diana 1
I conjure thee to do some little good
To this poor beast.'
Then thou wilt find
A great goat,
A true he-goat,
And thou shalt say,
' Good evening, fair goat !
And he will reply,
'Good evening, fair sir!
I am so weary
That I can go no farther.'
And thou shait reply as usual,
' Fairy Diana, I conjure thee
To give to this goat relief and peace ! '
" Then will -Jie enter in a great hall where thou wilt see
many beautiful ladies who will try to fascinate thee;
but let thy answer ever be, ' She whom I love is her of
Monteroni."
" And now, Gianni, to horse ; mount and away ! " So
he mounted the cat, which flew as quick as thought, and
found the mare, and having pronounced over it the
incantation, it became a woman and said : —
" In nome della Fata Diana !
Tu possa divenire
Un giovane bello
Bianco e tosso !
Di latte e sangue I "
" In the name of the Fairy Diana !
Mayest thou hereby become
A beautiful young man,
Red and white in hue,
Like to milk and blood ! "
After this he found the goat and conjured it Id like
manner, and it replied : —
" In the name of the Fairy Diana !
Be thou attired more richly than a prince I "
So he passed to the hall, where he was wooed by
beautiful ladies, but his answer to them all was that
his love was at Monterone.
Then he saw or knew no more, but on awaking found
himself in Monterone, and so changed to a handsome
youth that no one knew him. So he married his beau-
tiful lady, and all lived the hidden life of witches and
wizards from that day, and are now in Fairy Land.
A&PEirtifx
NOTE
As a curious illustration of the fact that the faith in
Diana and the other deities of the Roman mythology,
as connected with divination, stili survives among the
Italians of " the people," I may mention that after this
work went to press, I purchased for two soldi or one penny,
a small chapbook in which it is shown howj by a process
of conjuration or evocation and numbers, not only
Diana, but thirty-nine other deities may be made to give
answers to certain questions. The work is probably
taken from some old manuscript, as it is declared to have
been discovered and translated by P. P. Francesco di
Villanova Monteleone. It is divided into two parts,
one entitled Circe and the other Medea,
As such works must have pictures, Circe is set forth
by a page cut of a very ugly old woman in the most
modern costume of shawl and mob-cap with ribbons.
She is holding an ordinary candlestick. It is quite the
ideal of a common fortune-teller, and it is probable that
the words Maga Circe suggested nothing more or less
than such a person to him who " made up " the book.
That of Medea is, however, quite correct, even artistic,
representing the sorceress as conjuring the magic bath,
and was probably taken from some work on mythology.
It is ever so in Italy, where the most grotesque and
modern conceptions of classic subjects are mingled with
— !s«Ji that is accurate and beautiful — of which indeed
this work supplies many examples.
IVorks by the same Author relating to Folk-
Lore^ Legend, and Romantic Literature.
LEaENDS OF FLORENCE. Collected from the People
and te-told by CHART, F.S GodfreV LelAND, Hon. F.R.L.S., A.M.
(Harvaid). In Two Vols. London : David Nutt, 1896. Each
Volume, 5s.
ETRUSCAN- ROMAN LEGENDS. Illustrated by the
Author. London : T. Fisheh Ujjwim. ,£1, is.
imong th«
ayPSV, SORCERY, AND FORTUNE-TELLINQ.
tlluslraied by numerous Incanlalions, Specimens of Medical Magic,
Anecdoies, Poems, and Tales. London : T. Fishek Unwin, 1891.
THE ALQONKIN LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Boston : Houghton & Mifflin. 1683.
In tbis work are set forth in sagas, or tales, a mythology as grand and
'nelSli^
picturesque as that of the Edda. (0 which il bears a ina.rveirous resemblance
in innumerable details. It was gathered bythe Author from tbe Red Indians
themselves, ofthe tribes of the Pass " " " ' ... -
England, Wales, Hunfajy, Egyi
Romnny and EoElis'- -• -" '
vork thai Ihe Skil
language of ibt liiih ban]&,
Houghton & Mifflin, Boston and
Ih Edition.
E amME lh= gypsies of America
igue Bpoktn by ^nkere
w SaufsOh .
ANGLO-ROMANV BALLADS. By Charles Godfrey
Leland. the laie Prof. E. H. Palmef (of Oidbrd), and Janet
TucKEV. London : Kegan Paui. & Co.
anlain. The work is copioosly ill
d by thE ■uihor with ooe-balf a
'" ' '' tidguiahed vittE-writa
ONE HUNDRED ITALIAN TALES, GATHERED
FROM THE PEOPLE IN STRANGE NOOKS AND STRAY
CORNERS. (Now in Preparation.)
IS are of Ihe same characur as those given by the Author in faii
re of a far mora varied and pIcEure^quc or eiotesque
clement of a wild and eoblin-Jilte or fairy kind inspires
n niriniK hillarf.. praicrbi, and fl!(((F or Sayings. One
SONGS OF THE SEA AND LAYS OF THE LAND.
By C. G. Leland. London : A. & C. Black. Second Edition,
' Legends of F
popular American tales. Several of the latter have ht , . ..._
Author's version— vEry popular at public recitations. The work includes
tbe originals and translations of a few very pretty Spauisb sailor songs, as
well 33 the text o( " Time for us to go," which has been declared by several
reviewers, including Mr. Andrew Lang, to be Ihe best sea-bailad ever
written. Tbe collection was IhorougUy revised by an experienced old
Yankee sailor.
MOTHER PITCHER'S BALLADS. New York, 1864.
b«flme'fijJk-la^E'°ci^UiidilfD^andps^lBr. lahfirsl appealed -Pine-Wine, Uie Fie
CTOsedllie'ALlijiiic and which TcDiuel illuilnledirilh ifiiU-piigEcarlDon,repreKtiI'
iiac 'Ping-Wing' burning up tbe CreaCy. Thii ballad was (L« toiKiuantr of Ihe
PlDaiN-ENOLISHSINO-SONQ. Kegan Paul & Co.
A eolleclion of ballads viith a vocabulary ; conlainio^ many popular laies
and sayings, prciverlis, &c. , peculiar to Ibis strange dialed. Tbe work is
ei;ten£ively used by beginners who wish lo acquire it.
A book of ttavel, bul consisting in great pait of legends, proverbs, usages,
and ulber folk-lore. Freely writlen in a humorous vein. Contains curous
information relalive lo the Copts, with whom tbe aulhor bad much iater-
A DICTIONARY OF SLANQ, JARGON, AND
CANT. Embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian Slang,
Kdgin-Enghsh, Gypsy, Yiddish, and other irregular phraseology.
Compiled and Edited by Albert BAHukM^and Charles Godfbev
LelANd. In Two Vols, of nearly 500 8vo pp. each. Second
E^dilioQ- London : Sell & Co.
"There is saaHIIbing o[ Iiadilion, folk-lore, and very Qanaas intereil to be faond
on every paec of Ibis book." " It contains a Iborough yet condise hiaury of English
Canting and Slnng."
Kently thirty speciaJiats contributed to tbe dlfffironl d^Jortmentfi, and these were
individually at the head of th«i deparlmenti, as the U» indicales. This is the only
CBllyac
with the 1
ADDRESSES AND PAPERS ON THE ROMANY
LANGUAGE, PIDGIN-ENGLISH, AND ITALIAN FOLK-
LORE, in English, German, French, and Italian, Delivered at
the Oriental Congresses of Florence, Vienna. Slookholm, and
London, at the first Folk-Lore Congress in Paris, the second in
London, and that of the CetUgio Romano in Rome in i3ga, and
published in their proceedings, &c.
LONDON: DAVID NUTT
270-71 STRAND, W.C.
•Ji
36106 038 436 510
STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
CECIL H, GREEN LIBRARY
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305-6004
(415) 723-1493
All books may be recoiled after 7 days
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